New Delhi, July 30: In a major setback to Coast Guard’s plan to upgrade its capacity post-Mumbai attacks, the Defence Ministry has cancelled a tender for hiring eight helicopters for transport and evacuation operations after going through the year-long selection process.
The Defence Ministry had floated the tender for leasing the eight helicopters from global manufacturers in the middle of 2009, a deal that would have been worth several crores of rupees. Four major helicopter manufacturers -- French Eurocopter, British-Italian Agusta Westland, Russian Kaman and American Sikorsky -- were provided the tender documents. But only Sikorsky and Agusta responded to the tender towards the end of 2009. However, after about eight months of scrutinising the tender papers and opening of commercial bids, the Defence Ministry decided to cancel the tenders and go in for a re-tendering process, a Defense Ministry official said.
The Coast Guard plan was to place two helicopters in four different coastal cities. The Defence Ministry official said though one of the companies was selected for awarding the lease contract, the price negotiations failed. (PTI)