SLA manufactured 'BUFFEL' to be used in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 April 2004, 09:40 GMT]
Five armored personnel vehicles (APV) manufactured locally by the Sri Lanka Army's Regiment of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Unit in Sri Lanka are to be handed over to the Special Task Force (STF) fleet of the Sri Lanka Police Thursday. These APVs known as Buffel are to be utilized in the northeast province for the use of government troops, the State controlled English daily the Daily News reported in its Tuesday issue.

The Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the Chief of the Defense Staff Lt.General Lionel Balagalle will formally hand over these APVs to the Commandant of the STF Deputy Inspector general Nimal Leuke at the army headquarters in Colombo, newspaper report further said.

The new APVs manufactured in Colombo at a cost of 3 million rupees each are similar in construction to the original Buffels earlier imported from South Africa, the Daily News said in its report quoting military sources.

The new five APVs will join the STF fleet in the northeast province, the report said.