Police just bought 200 Tata Yodha pickups at Rs 4.78m each — smart buy or wrong brand?

Cabinet approved a Rs 957 million deal this week (announced 20 October) for 200 single-cab Tata Yodha pickups for the Police, supplied by DIMO at Rs 4,785,000 per unit excluding VAT. DIMO won after a national competitive tender that drew seven bids, picked as the "substantially responsive lowest bidder." One side says this is exactly how public procurement should work: open tender, lowest responsive bid wins, and the Yodha is cheap to maintain with parts and service readily available here, so taxpayers save money over a Hilux or Triton at nearly double the price. The other side asks whether lowest price is the right test for police vehicles that need to survive bad roads, flood rescues and years of hard duty without breaking down — and whether Tata's durability and resale actually hold up against Japanese pickups in real Sri Lankan use, tender price aside. Have you owned or driven a Yodha for work? What did it cost you in repairs over 3-5 years compared to a Hilux or L200, and would you trust it for emergency response? මෙය සුපිරි ගනුදෙනුවක්ද නැත්නම් වෙනුවට ජපන් වෑන් එකක් ගන්න ඕන කියලද ඔයාට හිතෙන්නේ?