This procurement plan is in addition to the plan to upgrade the army's existing 232 old tanks under two projects. The upgrading will cost nearly Tk 1,000 crore. The government has primarily decided for a Tk 350 crore Chinese soft loan to finance one of the two projects while financing for the other project has not yet been decided.

Side by side, Bangladesh Navy is also procuring two US-made maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) at a cost of Tk 130 crore. Singapore-based King Air is supplying these aircraft.

The sources also said a lawmaker close to the prime minister's family is allegedly drawing commissions on different defence procurements, including the MPAs.

But the army headquarters deny having any influence of this lawmaker or any other outsider on their procurements.

The army authorities at a meeting on March 2 noted that though the army is authorised to have 308 MBTs, it now has 232 tanks. Of these, 50 have been declared obsolete.

The meeting said most of the tanks are very old and have outlived their operational life. All these tanks lack modern fighting capacity. In such a situation, the government has taken up a project to upgrade 58 tanks under a Chinese loan for Chinese expertise.

To upgrade the remaining tanks, the army requires around Tk 600 crore, which may be met either from budgetary allocation for the army or a separate allocation by the finance ministry. Contract may be awarded to vendors on deferred payment for a period of five years, the meeting decided.

The army headquarters also decided to procure two squadrons (28) of tanks. These tanks of Warsaw or Chinese origin will cost approximately Tk 15 to 16 crore each. The payment of Tk 448 crore for the two squadrons of tanks may be made in instalments in five years.

On April 6, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in principle approved the procurement proposal for 28 tanks.

When contacted, the army headquarters said tanks are not being procured right now. But it is under consideration in the 'perspective plan' of the army.

They said they have plans to upgrade the old tanks. But the job of upgrading is not starting right away. Before the upgrading, there will be systematic trial, which will take time.

On the navy's purchase of MPAs, the army headquarters said the world considers MPA as the fastest and most reliable platform to monitor the maritime region. The operating cost for MPA is also significantly lower than patrol naval ships.

Bangladesh has 44,000 square miles of maritime area. A navy ship takes three days and three nights to monitor such a huge area. The MPA can do this job in 2 to 3 hours, they mentioned.

Bangladesh Navy started the process of adding the MPA to its system in the mid-nineties. It underwent various levels of scrutiny before the government gave its approval in principle. Accordingly, two MPAs are being procured as per rules and regulations.