BEML… Indian Manufacturer Who Knew?

I was delving into the Digger Man Blog photo archives over the weekend, and came across some old shots featuring machines from Indian manufacturer BEML, which got me in the mood for finding out more about them.

Photo: BEML 5013 track shovel circa 1976-77

Most of the photos I have of BEML kit in my collection are dated around the mid to late 1970’s and to be honest, I have never seen a BEML formerly known as (Bharat Earth Movers Ltd) machine in the iron in my life.

Photo: BEML D120A-18 dozer circa 1977-78.

So, I had no idea that the government-owned company which is based in Bangalore, was first formed in 1964, is still very much an active business, producing a diverse range of products which besides construction & mining machines, also includes, aerospace components, military vehicles, and trains.

Photo: BEML 8023 MkII track shovel circa 1975.

A lot of the machines in my archive photos bear a striking resemblance to Komatsu products of that era, I’m not sure if there was some kind of licensing agreement between the two companies, or whether they were just blatant copies at the time, but I suspect there was some form of collaboration, much in the way they worked with Bucyrus to produce rope shovels and draglines.

In this photo we see a BEML single engined motor scraper model described as a C229F model dated 1980 (Apologies for the blue ink over this rare image!).

Today the company manufactures products across 9 manufacturing facilities in India, for the domestic and greater Asian markets, with the line up of construction and mining products consisting of bulldozers, excavators, wheeled loaders, pipe layers, wheeled dozers, shovels, dump trucks, motor graders, water tanker/sprinklers, tyre handlers and specialist under-ground mining equipment.

Check out this corporate video from BEML.