Indian Defence Ministry Cancels Tenders for Coast Guard Helicopters

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. "Yes, we have cancelled the tenders for hiring of eight medium lift helicopters," a top Defence Ministry official told. 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.

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Posted in: Helicopter,India