L&T’s armoured systems complex at Hazira, on Surat’s industrial coast, has a new production line. On October 28, Larsen & Toubro and BAE Systems began building the BvS10 Sindhu, an articulated all-terrain vehicle, for an Indian Army order of 18 units, DeshGujarat and The Week reported. Some of those vehicles will patrol Gujarat’s own border with Pakistan in Kutch.
From the K9 Vajra gun line to a second Army programme
Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the Hazira armoured systems complex in January 2018. The 40-acre unit sits inside L&T’s 755-acre Hazira manufacturing yard. Its first big job was the K9 Vajra, a 155 mm tracked self-propelled howitzer built with South Korea’s Hanwha Defence. L&T delivered the 100th and last gun of that order in February 2021, ahead of schedule, as the Tribune and an L&T release recorded at the time.
The BvS10 follows the same model: a foreign design partner and assembly in Surat. BAE Systems Hägglunds of Sweden, which makes the original BvS10, supplies design and technical support under licence. The Army signed the contract with L&T in November 2025, with a support package for maintenance through the vehicles’ service life, Business Today and EDR Magazine reported. No contract value has been made public.
A vehicle for the Rann as well as Ladakh
The BvS10 runs as two linked tracked cabins that bend at a joint. That layout lets it cross snow, sand, mud and swamp, and it can float through flooded ground. The Indian version, named Sindhu, has been adapted for altitudes of about 18,000 feet and cold down to minus 55°C in Ladakh, and for heat of up to 55°C in Kutch.
The Kutch role matters for Gujarat. Army patrols along the Pakistan border cross desert, marsh and the salt flats of the Great Rann, ground where conventional vehicles struggle, The Week noted. A tracked, amphibious carrier gives troops a way across it, with versions for troop transport, command, medical evacuation, recovery and logistics, The Week reported. The state’s other border investments point the same way; Kutch rail lines toward Lakhpat and Hajipir reached tender stage this month, as we reported.
Eighteen vehicles, and what Surat can expect
An order of 18 is small next to the 100 K9 guns. For Hazira, the larger question is whether the Army follows up with more vehicles, since that would decide how long the line runs. L&T and BAE described the launch as part of a partnership that dates to 2023 and said they plan to scale up manufacturing. Neither company has announced further orders, delivery dates or the share of parts sourced in India.
Sources: DeshGujarat, The Week, Business Today, EDR Magazine, The Tribune, L&T
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.