Tata Mine Protected Vehicle review, test drive

Open the heavy rear door slowly (you just can’t yank it open), climb up into the back and you step into a cabin that looks surprisingly similar to the inside of a paratrooper transport. Porthole windows, a rubberised floor and wall-mounted seats greet you. Troopers get no seatbelts but a four-point harness to hold you in place in case of a blast, and mounting the seats on the walls help too, as the floor absorbs the worst from the exploding mine. Every single item also has to be fixed in place. If the MPV takes a hit, any loose items could become a flying missile and prove very dangerous. So there are storage boxes, gun racks where weapons can be strapped in, and plenty of places to secure stuff like bags and rucksacks. There are also a couple of hatches or turrets at the top, in case you need to return fire or escape. It doesn’t have a gazillion ceiling-mounted storage spaces like the Aria though.    

Up front, things are more traditional. The driver’s seat is self-leveling, the steering wheel and some of the instrument panels are borrowed from Tata’s World Truck, the Prima, and there are bits and pieces you can recognise from almost all Tata cars, the Nano included. What’s unique at the front of the cab, however, is the slot-like windscreen. Almost a foot thick, the single-piece windscreen allows you an uninterrupted view of the road ahead. But it does feel weird, sitting so far up, peering down at that locomotive-like bonnet with just a sliver of road visible from 10 feet up.