Historical Background

The history of Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) dates back to 1929, when the Chief Inspectorate of Mechanical Transport was formed at Chaklala. In 1947, the Inspectorate was shifted to Ahmednagar and was renamed as Technical Development Establishment (Vehicles). In 1962, the Engineering Wing was separated as independent establishment at Pune, named as R&DE (Engrs). Further in 1965, the activities were bifurcated between ‘R&D’ and ‘Inspection’ and two separate establishment viz. Vehicles Research and Development Establishment and Controllerate of Quality Assurance Vehicles (CQAV), came into existence. A detachment of VRDE was created at Avadi, Chennai in 1966 which eventually lead to the formation of CVRDE. In 1985, VRDE was assigned the additional role of design and development of light tracked vehicles up to 25t GVW.