The Boot Anti Mine (Infantry), also known as BAMI in Army parlance, were procured by the Northern Command in 2018 under the Army Commanders Special Financial Power Fund.
Indian Army’s procurement of anti mine boots for troops deployed on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir has run into rough weather with the Army’s Northern Command finding the boots supplied to be defective and witholding the payment of nearly Rs 17 Crore to the firm that supplied the boots.
Documents accessed by The Indian Express show that the Northern Command has withheld payment of nearly Rs 16.77 Crores for the supply of 6250 anti mine boots to a Batala (Punjab) based firm, Gee Kay Engineering Industries, alleging that defective shoes had been supplied which did not offer adequate protection and caused severe injuries to army personnel deployed on Line of Control following mine blasts.
It is pertinent to mention here that the boots had been supplied to the Northern Command in July 2018 and they were accepted by the Army authorities after 100 per cent inspection in September 2018. Earlier, the boots had been selected for supply after extensive blast tests and field trials by a Technical Evaluation committee (TEC) of the Northern Command. The inspection and acceptance board had rejected 32 pairs of BAMI which were replaced by the supplier firm in October 2018 and the supplier submitted a bill for Rs 16,77,07,500 in the same month.