Sarvatra is a truck-mounted, multi-span, mobile bridging system developed by Research and Development Establishment (R&DE) of Defence Research and Development Organisation for the Indian army. Its nodal production agency is Bharat Earth Movers, Bangalore.
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Description
The Sarvatra is a 75 meters long multi-span mobile bridging system consists of five scissors bridge made of aluminum alloy having span of 15 meters each mounted on separate mobile platform. Each mobile platform is a modified Tatra 815 VVN 8 x 8 chassis drive-able from both ends by having an additional small cabin with required driving controls. Further a microprocessor based control system is utillised to deploy and operationalise the entire system in less than two and half hours.
When the 15 meter long scissors bridge is opened out it is fitted with adjustable trestles to enable a number of units to be used to bridge wet and dry gaps. All five sections are laid to provide a total bridge length of 75 m providing a roadway of four meters. The bridge is launched/recovered from either end. With the help of telescopic legs, the height of the bridge is adjusted from 2.5 m to 6 m so that it is not easily visible from far.
The Sarvatra project was sanctioned in 1994 and completed development in October 1999 at a total cost of Rs 230 million. It was approved for production in March 2000 after trials. The Sarvatra will replace the East European PMS Bridges, in service of Indian army which require 57 Tatra vehicles to bridge 100 metres. In contrast, the Sarvatra, with just five Tatra trucks, bridges 75 metres. At Rs 600 million per set, the PMS costs almost thrice as much as a Sarvatra.
A 20 m variant of Sarvatra bridge system capable of bridging a gap of 100 meters have also been developed.