Page 2 - Sands of Time Special Issue on Tata Motors Diamond Jubilee

2 VOL. XVII, ISSUE 2, 2020 VOL. XVII, ISSUE 2, 2020 3

n RAilWAyS AnD rOaDrOLLErs n COLLabOraTiOn WiTh DAiMlER bEnZ

railwaYS The company entered into a technical locomotives and one hundred In the early fi fties, even as the
collaboration with Krauss Maff ei of spare boilers a year. The fi rst railways were thinking of switching
tatas took over the Singhbhum Munich, West Germany, as consulting locomotive - mainly reassembled over to diesel and electrical traction,
Shops with the intent of engineers for the planning, from a knocked-down German TELCO was looking for a new product.
manufacturing Steam Locomotives construction and equipment of the export - was despatched from TELCO It was just sort of a coincidence that
for Indian Railways. This was to be locomotive shops. The Locomotive to the Western Railway, Ajmer, on Daimler-Benz A.G. of West Germany
taken up in three main stages after Workshops were completed in February 22, 1952. was also looking for an outlet for
signing a 16-year Agreement (1945 1952 and they were planned their products and knowhow in India
to 1961) with the Railway Board. for manufacturing one hundred The indigenous content for the and other developing countries.
locomotives rose from negligible
in 1952 to 75% in 1954, 98% in In March 1953, the Chairman of
1961 and 99% in 1969. The last Daimler-Benz, C.P. Giese was on a
component imported from the visit to India to have discussions
collaborators was in 1969. Slowly, with Ashok Motors regarding a
orders from Indian Railways were possible collaboration to manufacture
stepped down to a level of sixty-fi ve commercial vehicles. Giese happened
locomotives a year from 1961 to to meet Tatas and visited TELCO
1967. The despatch of its last steam Works at Jamshedpur. He was
locomotive was on June 25, 1970 and impressed by the TELCO Works and
TELCO’s share in the manufacture of was convinced that TELCO could
steam locos was 1155 out of 3526,
i.e. 33%.

FROM THE w the Share Certifi cate of tata engineering and locomotive Co. ltd. the Share Certifi cate of tata engineering and locomotive Co. ltd.
w

COLLECTION w Tata Mercedes-Benz trucks ready On September 24,1960 when the activity for production of automobiles
far exceeded that pertaining to locomotives, the name of the company
was inverted and became TATA ENGINEERING AND LOCOMOTIVE
OF THE w First Diesel Industrial Shunter for despatch. COMPANY LIMITED giving second place to locomotives.

rolled out of the workshops on

TATA CENTRAL ARCHIVES make use of its surplus capacity to it.” The result was a meticulous,

October 27, 1962.
manufacture trucks.
elaborate Works Agreement which
w a complete “Yg” Steam locomotive - meter gauge type. As the Indian Railways started moving settled all conceivable questions
towards Diesel and Electric traction The talks dragged on for months. in forty paragraphs, right down to
TELCO procured the license and the J.R.D., Sumant Moolgaokar and J.D. the smallest detail. Due to which
General Engineering Division broke Choksi (Senior Legal Advisor to Tatas) the agreement was termed as a
fresh ground when the fi rst Diesel went to Geneva for one more round “Technical Aid Agreement.” Tata
Industrial Shunter, designed and of talks in May 1954. When the talks Locomotives was now in the truck-
built by their engineers (without any were on the verge of break down, the making business with the initial
foreign collaboration), rolled out of w the fi rst batch of tata Mercedes-Benz Chairman of the German company 15 year collaboration with Daimler-
the Workshops on October 27, 1962. trucks 1210 were exported to turned to J.R.D. and said: “You draft Benz from April 1, 1954. By October
The shunter project made steady Ceylon in 1961. the agreement and we will discuss vehicles started rolling out.
progress since its inception and its
quality was very high, which could be
w “yG” Steam Locomotive w “yG” Steam Locomotive being gauged from the number of repeat the product bore the name of tata MerCeDeS-BenZ until June 5, 1969 when
th
hoisted by cranes. lowered on to the wheels. orders till they ceased in 1974. the 1,78,808 vehicle was produced and further vehicles bore the name
tata only. By the end of 1976, the total of Tata vehicles made in the previous
seven and a half years surpassed the total of tMB vehicles made in 15 years.
roaD rollerS:
TELCO built up enough steam by now to move forward on its own. TELCO
towarDS the end of World War II, the Government concentrated on the economic resorted to indigenisation and localisation. the eff orts paid off and fully
development of India. They realised that the development of good roads and maintaining justifi ed the claim made in an early advertisement for Commercial Vehicle
them was a vital necessity. Business unit (CVBu) products: “not adapted for indian conditions; designed
In March 1946, a scheme was fi nalised to supply 950 steam road rollers to the for Indian conditions.”
Government by M/s. Marshalls in association with TELCO. Despite numerous diffi culties,
the fi rst batch of road rollers was completed on April 22, 1948. Over the next few decades, the brand that epitomised movement and
progress in this country embarked on a journey of evolution and learning.
Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, Minister for Industries and Supply, launched the fi rst of Imbued with the pioneering spirit and driven by the pursuit of automotive w the fi rst batch of vehicles bearing
the Road Roller, the “City of Delhi”. Several other road rollers each named after a big city excellence, Tata Motors forged a reputation as one of the world’s top the “T” insignia roll out of the
in India – Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Jubbulpore, Patna – rolled past in quick succession. w road roller being assembled. automobile manufacturing company. telCo works on June 5, 1969.

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