VRS Natarajan, chairman and managing director of BEML Ltd, allegedly routes the money earned as commission from the procurement of Tatra truck components through Champion Textiles Limited, a public limited company incorporated by his family in 1995.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_beml-boss-routes-tatra-truck-commission-through-family-owned-company_1568786

See also:

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_dna-investigation-how-military-non-indigenisation-helps-vested-interests_1568492

Prague, June 19 (CTK) – A diplomatic dispatch from 2005 according to which Czech arms dealers cooperate with countries covered by an arms embargo and withhold this from U.S. partners has appeared on Wikileaks, the Czech Television (CT) public broadcaster reported Sunday.

Full article: http://praguemonitor.com/2011/06/20/cabanisss-dispatch-czech-arms-deals-appears-wikileaks

With temperatures rising and the first official day of summer just around the corner, Utah County has deployed crews to multiple states to help fight fires.

On June 9, the Utah County Fire Tatra and a six-person crew were sent to Arizona to fight the Wallow fire, according to Utah County fire warden Kevin Cortez. Cortez said the Tatra is a specialized fire truck that was partially constructed in the Czech Republic. He said that it combines the benefits of an urban fire truck with an off-road vehicle by being capable of going up steep slopes, fording up to four feet of water, and adjusting tire pressure to adapt to road conditions. It also holds 2,000 gallons of water and 50 gallons of foam.

Full article: http://www.heraldextra.com/

Prague, June 10 (CTK) -

Former Czech defence minister Martin Bartak, suspected of having asked for a bribe in connection with the purchase of Tatra lorries for the military, filed a complaint against Tatra representatives on suspicion of corruption this week, his lawyer told the Euro.cz server.

http://praguemonitor.com/2011/06/13/eurocz-former-defence-minister-suspects-tatra-reps-corruption

Prague, May 18 (CTK) – Czech Transport Minister Radek Smerda has named Paris-Dakar Rallye six-times winner Karel Loprais, 62, commissioner for road traffic safety, the ministry’s spokesman Jakub Ptacinsky told CTK Wednesday.

Loprais’s name is closely connected with the Tatra lorries with which he was competing in the rally.

“We want to make use of his rich experience and knowledge in the sphere of road transport in promotion of safe traffic,” Ptacinsky said.

Smerda received Loprais Wednesday morning. The details of his work in the new post are yet to be discussed, Ptacinsky said.

Loprais won the Rallye Paris-Dakar riding a Tatra lorry in 1988, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2001.

Besides gold medals in this category, he also holds four silver and one bronze medals.

Loprais is a trained blacksmith. He worked with Tatra Koprivnice from 1967. After some time he became a Tatra testing driver, later focusing on testing the lorries in extreme conditions.

An expensive Czech equivalent to a Cadillac, the streamlined Tatra T87 was very fast for its day, with a top speed of 103 mph. But not many were sold outside Czechoslovakia. It’s hard to sell something before its time.

My Tatra T87 sedan was built in the small city of Koprivnice, in 1938. It’s powered by a rear-mounted, cast-magnesium, air-cooled 2.9-liter overhead-cam Hemi-head V8 with a four-speed transaxle. The suspension is fully independent, with twin transverse leaf springs in front and a unique swing axle setup in back.

People go nuts for Tucker cars these days—they sell for over a million dollars—but the Tatra was developed a good 10 years before the Tucker, and it was much more advanced. It had a V8, not a flat six, and it didn’t use somebody else’s engine or transmission. The Tatra is really what the Tucker should have been—a truly aerodynamic car that got 20 mpg at 60 mph. In the ’30s, fuel consumption for most big six-passenger cars was 6 to 9 mpg.  More……

Prague – The management of the Czech Tatra truck maker and its Indian share holder Ravinder Kumar Rishi face a criminal complaint over suspiciously disadvantageous deliveries of vehicles to India, the daily Pravo writes today.

12-04-2011 15:41 | Rob Cameron

An intriguing Czech exhibition is on its way to Iraq in the coming weeks, dedicated to the exploits of the Czech Republic’s most famous explorers. Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund travelled through Iraq in 1960 as part of their voyage to the Middle East and Asia, one of several such adventures in their trademark Tatra car. On Friday Miroslav Zikmund and a delegation of visiting Iraqi politicians visited the exhibition at the Czech Senate. More…..

Prague, April 6 (CTK) – The Czech military plans to buy 12 Tatra service vehicles for repairs and salvage of Pandur armoured vehicles and price of the purchase seems unreasonably high to some experts, Czech Television (CT) reported yesterday.  The Military Repair Enterprise (VOP) offers one such Tatra vehicle for 50 million crowns.  The Defence Ministry started negotiating about the purchase in late 2009 when Martin Bartak was minister.  More…..