The Gun Carriage Factory, located in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, is the oldest ordnance factory in India. Started by the British in 1904, this factory received its first order in 1905 to produce transport carts for British Army soldiers. As the factory expanded with more machinery, the factory started producing steam road rollers, steam engine components, oil pressing rollers, etc.
The Gun Carriage Factory (later renamed the GCF) grew to be one of the most important units for the Indian government, producing all types of gun carriages and vehicles and supplying them to all military and paramilitary forces. This factory (later) became famous with its acronym JONGA, or Jabalpur Ordnance and Guncarriage Assembly, when it produced the Nissan Patrol P60 for many years.
Mathuradas Gupta, or Mr. M.D. Gupta, was a young engineer at the Gun Carriage Factory (GCF), who climbed up the ladder of hierarchy at a fast pace because of his astute mechanical engineering skills as well as his love for automobiles. He developed better working processes and introduced new ideas to increase production. He soon rose to take the position of Chief Engineer, which was a very senior position in the fifties.
Because of his knowledge, the Government of India appointed him to form a panel and locate a replacement model for the British made Leyland Hippo that was not suited for the Indian terrain and the Ford CMP (Canadian Military Pattern), which was proven but had become outdated.Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG, or MAN’s first interaction with India was way back in 1936, when one of the field representatives came here to sell their popular truck Typ S1H6 model. But that didn’t pave much for results, as he could sell only six trucks that he brought along to the then British Indian Army. But MAN had been pursuing this all along and asked the Government of India to place a trial order for testing.
Gupta and his team also found that the truck model MAN 415 (L1 AR) would be ideal for India. A trial order was given and the first batch of trucks with both 4x2 and 4x4 configurations arrived. The trucks were deputed to various locations for the field trials, and they passed all the tests convincingly. Gupta himself would go on these trips.
The GCF soon started producing these vehicles locally from the year 1959, giving them a name, SHAKTIMAN, which means great strength (in Hindi). The Shaktiman soon became the most iconic vehicle in the history of the Indian Army, with over 70,000 being produced in Jabalpur.
Gupta’s thirst for knowledge on the subject of automobiles and the hunger for innovation didn’t end with the selection of the Shaktiman for the military. Earlier, he had been wanting to develop a car that would move the masses and yet could be made affordable. He had already started working on this idea a few years earlier, in his spare time, drawing up images and identifying the type of engine to be used after he discovered a small firm by the name of Pashley Cycles who were converting the Royal Enfield motorcycle into a 3-wheeler, rebranding them as "Indian" and exporting them to the USA to be used as patrolling police vehicles. This was in the early 1950’s.
He soon built two teams, one within the ordnance factory and the other at the Technical Development Establishment Vehicles (TDEV) at Ahmednagar, Maharashtra and started working on the “Jabalpur Car” project.
The idea was to produce a transport vehicle using a motorcycle engine on a completely new chassis. He formulated the entire process and built the first prototype in 1958. This message travelled to Delhi, and India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, travelled to Jabalpur, liked the model, and asked him to patent this tricycle car. He was in the process of doing it when tragedy struck in the winter of 1958.
During one of the Shaktiman field trials between Jabalpur and Nagpur, the truck met with an accident on December 7th, 1958 and fell down a deep gorge, killing him instantly. To commemorate the same, a stone with his engraved name was placed at the spot where he met his tragic death.
The only car that was produced within the Jabalpur Ordnance Factory was consigned to dust, and there’s no trace of the same after the passage of 60 years. All that is left are these rare images.
Genie + Maneesh Aggarwal
NOTE: All published images belong to the Gupta family (Babbal Mama, Gaurav, Parag, Veena Manju), and the Aggarwal family (Asha, Usha, Maneesh). No publication of any images without the consent of these two families are allowed.