The first of the LCAs was handed over to IAF 32 years after the project started.
ABHINANDAN MISHRA New Delhi | 7th Mar 2015
Vital defence projects that have been taken up by the country’s premier Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) over the last several years, do not show any signs of completion despite thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money spent on them.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, while detailing the nine major DRDO projects that have not been able to meet their deadlines, stated in Parliament that Rs 16,708 crore have been spent on these projects that were scheduled to be completed years ago.
Some of these projects, such as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Tejas, Phase II, which was expected to be completed by December 2008, has now been pushed to the end of this month. The government had sanctioned Rs 5,777 crore for this project. The first of the LCAs, which was conceived in 1983, was handed over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in January this year by Parrikar, 32 years after the project started.
Similarly, the probable date of completion of the Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA, Navy) Phase I, which was expected to be completed by March 2010, is under revision. One of the reasons submitted by the Defence Minister for the delay is that “technology challenges have been significantly higher than originally anticipated”. The sanctioned cost of this project is Rs 1,714.98 crore
The probable date of completion of another much talked about project, Aero Engine Kaveri, which was supposed to be completed by December 1996, is also under revision. Sources within DRDO claim that the project, for which the government had sanctioned Rs 2,839 crore, is likely to be shelved
The Air Borne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) System, for which the government has sanctioned Rs 2,275 crore, is running four years behind the probable date of completion. It was supposed to be handed over to the IAF in October 2011. This has now been postponed to December 2015.
Another crucial project, Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile (LR-SAM), which was allotted Rs 2,606.02 crore is also running four years behind its completion date. It was supposed to be completed by May 2011, but the DRDO has now promised to finish it by December 2015.
The helicopter version third generation anti tank guided missile, whose promised date of completion was December 2010, is now expected to be completed by January 2018. Air-to-air missile Astra too is running four years behind its scheduled date of completion and is expected to be ready by December 2016.
The project on the dual colour missile approach warning system for fighter aircraft and advanced lightweight torpedo, which were to be completed by the DRDO in 2013, are now likely to be executed by the latter part of 2015. For the financial year 2013-14, a total of Rs 10,610.17 crore was allocated to DRDO, of which Rs 5,552.57 crore was in revenue and Rs 5,057.60 crore was in capital.
A senior official with the DRDO stated that the “culture” of promoting scientists who are unable to complete their projects on time, instead of reprimanding them is a big factor behind the delays that have become synonymous with DRDO.
“The practice of seeking extensions for a project, one after another, has been condoned by successive Defence Ministers. Why would a scientist want to complete his project on time if he knows that even if he does not complete it on time, the project will be extended and he will continue to work on the same project? Scientists who retire are given extensions because they have been working on a project, so they would naturally want the project to go on and on,” the official stated.
According to Parrikar, the government has taken many corrective measures to complete the ongoing projects on time like three-tier project monitoring and constituting a Project Monitoring Review Committee (PMRC). However, DRDO officials claimed that he was only repeating what has been said by Defence Ministers who came before him.
“Consortium approach, three-tier project monitoring approach, Project Monitoring Review Committee (PMRC) and Project Appraisal and Review Committee (PARC) have been there in the DRDO for the last 10-15 years. There is no new remedy which Parrikar has tried to suggest,” the official claimed.
Comments –
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, while detailing the delay in nine major DRDO projects vide Parliament question No 789 by Hon MP Nishikant Dubey from BJP and answered on 27 Feb 2015. As Per annexure ‘A; serial No 3 Aero Engine Kaveri, DRDo answer was technical bla bla the real delay reason the incompetent, corrupt, immoral scientist led the project.
Mr. T Mohan Rao, Director GTRE who was picked up by the Karnataka police during a raid on a high-end spa cum-massage parlour in Jaya-mahal on 11th May 2011 at 11 PM with the Mr V N Narayan, Agent Israeli firm ILN Technologies Inc.
T Mohana Rao is Director of the Gas Turbine Research institute (GTRE), a DRDO wing involved in the manufacture of Kaveri, India’s first indigenous jet engine for LCA Tejas. According to the police, Mohana Rao had claimed at the time of the arrest, “I have come to fix an appointment for
my wife for tomorrow.” Mohana Rao also allegedly lied to the police that he was a consultant with aeronautics space research and was a resident of Vimanapura in HAL. In 2008, Mohana
Rao and the GTRE team were awarded the Dr V M Ghatge national award for his outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace technology. Mohana Rao is also chairperson of the Bangalore branch of Aeronautical Society of India and the Chairperson of the township advisory committee of C V Raman Nagar, where most DRDO personnel live.
This is the tip of Ice the berg, Sh Avinash Chander down fall because of his immoral act to made Ms Tessy Thamos firstly Distinguished scientist ignoring lot of deserving scientists and after that made him Director, ASL again ignoring deserve candidates and finally made her husband CMDR S K Patel incompetent man recruited and appointed as director QRS violated all norms.
These types of cases are real reasons of
delaying in DRDO mission oriented projects.
shiva the destroyer • 14 hours ago
only solution to such kind of delays and carelessness is privatisation of DRDO…
What about software defined radio of Deal?
This TRUE for all government work , rajiv Gandhi started ganga clean yojana but even after spending 24000 Cr has not been able to clean it till todays date.. So blaming DRDO that too where they have develope technology know is just hiding all other corrupt practise
What is a great research work done by DRDO top corrupt scientist.give him GPL award & fridge the service & deposit all farzi property of all drdo top HQ mismanagement system officer.
Kindly dissolve the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) which is just a waste of tax money. LCA could have been done within DRDO itself but they wantedly created ADA to appoint their kith and kins to key positions and enjoy on tax payers money. When every country is moving to sixth generation aircraft technology, We Indians due to incompetent DRDO still not able to develop a flight worthy fourth generation aircraft. Drdo should leave its IIT favourism and mine the talent from local colleges. Since IITians work only for 3 or 4 year then go abroad, drdo or ISRO never takes people who are willing to serve. Just favourism and money for job. Unless you conduct a polygraph test or lie detector test on these persons in public truth will not be established. Same thing applies to HAL. A country which relies on foreign countries for its defence and industrial needs can never be a Republic country. If this continues, then “INDIA WAS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY, IS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY AND WILL BE A DEVELOPING COUNTRY IN AERONAUTICAL AND DEFENCE.”