New Delhi: Finance Ministry has expressed
reservations over the competitiveness of bids and prices in
the tender for procuring mid-air refueller aircraft for the
Indian Air Force (IAF), government said on Monday.
"Finance Ministry has expressed certain reservations
relating to the competitiveness of the bids and the
reasonableness of the price," Defence Minister A K Antony said
in reply to a Lok Sabha query.
European consortium EADS' Airbus A330 and Russian
IL-78 are the contenders for IAF's tender to add another six
refuellers to its existing fleet of the Russian aircraft.
The Defence Minister added the Defence Procurement
Procedure (DPP) envisages a time-line of up to two and a half
years from the date of issue of Request of Proposal (RFP)to
signing of contract in multi-vendor cases.
Replying to another query, the Defence Minister said
the government was considering the Kaveri-Snecma proposal for
developing a fighter aircraft engine together.
DRDO was working on indigenously developing the Kaveri
engine on its own but has now decided to tie-up with foreign
vendors to work on the programme.
He added the RFP for procuring 99 engines has been
sent to two engine manufacturers-- American General Electric
and European engine manufacturer Eurojet.
Answering another query on construction of the Rohtang
tunnel, the Minister said the contract for construction was
awarded to Starbag-Afcon on September 24 this year and the
project is expected to be completed by 2015.
-PTI
First Published: Monday, December 14, 2009, 20:36