The Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) located at

Avadi Avadi () is a suburb of Chennai within Chennai Metropolitan Area limit, located in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, India. It is a municipal corporation west of Chennai, about from Chennai Central Railway Station. It is surrounded by ma ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

n state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

is a armoured vehicle and battle tank manufacturing factory of

Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVANI) is an Indian state-owned defence company, headquartered in Avadi, Chennai, India established in 2021 as part of the restructuring and corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board into seven different Pu ...

. HVF was set up in 1961 by the

Ordnance Factory Board Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories, now known as Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination & Services) was an organisation, under the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of Ministry of Defence (MoD), Gover ...

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

to manufacture heavy battlefield equipment, including

Vijayanta The ''Vijayanta'' (en: "Victorious") was a main battle tank built in India based on a licensed design of the Vickers Mk.1. The Vijayanta was the first indigenous tank of the Indian Army. The prototype was completed in 1963 and the tank entered ...

Kartik BLT The ''Vijayanta'' (en: "Victorious") was a main battle tank built in India based on a licensed design of the Vickers Mk.1. The Vijayanta was the first indigenous tank of the Indian Army. The prototype was completed in 1963 and the tank ente ...

M-46 Catapult The M-46 Catapult was a self-propelled gun developed in India by Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment of the Defence Research & Development Organisation. Description The turret-less vehicle has an open area in the centre for th ...

and T-72 Ajeya

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

s and was later made part of Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited in 2021 and part of the coporatisation of Ordnance Factory Board. Currently, HVF manufactures India's Arjun MBT, BLT T-72, T-72 for TRAWL and the T-90 Bhishmas. Apart from OE manufacturing HVF also has the facility of overhauling all the tanks manufactured at HVF.The Engine Factory of HVF functions separately from HVF.

Solar plant

The factory has a 16 mega watt (MW) solar power plant, spread over 80 acres of land, commissioned in 2018, which is the largest solar power plant in the city. It was installed by

Bharat Electronics Limited Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is an Indian Government-owned aerospace and defence electronics company. It primarily manufactures advanced electronic products for ground and aerospace applications. BEL is one of nine PSUs under the Ministry ...

(BEL) at a cost of 1,050 million. A 110 kilo volt (KV) substation had been constructed to distribute the power generated from the plant. The plant helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the extent of 26,000 tonnes per annum, saving 45 million annually to the HVF and Engine Factory (EFA).

Gallery

References

Defence companies of India Economy of Chennai Manufacturing companies based in Chennai 1961 establishments in Madras State Manufacturing companies established in 1961 {{India-mil-stub