Defence ministry clears Rs12,000 crore proposal for procurement of transport aircraft for IAF
24 Jul 2012
The defence ministry yesterday cleared a proposal for procurement of 56 transport aircraft for the Air Force worth over Rs12,000 crore. The new aircraft would replace its fleet of vintage Avro planes.
The IAF' s proposal for a global tender to procure the aircraft was cleared at a meeting of the defence acquisition council (DAC) headed by defence minister A K Antony, according to a PTI report that quoted defence ministry sources in New Delhi.
Procurement of the first batch of 16 aircraft would be off-the-shelf from foreign vendors who would need to partner with a local private or public sector firm, the
sources added.
The next batch of 16 would have a 30 per cent indigenous content, while the component of locally-procured and produced items in the remaining 24 planes would would be 60 per cent.
The council also gave its nod to a proposal of creation of a new Defence Offsets Management Agency (DOMA) which would replace the existing Defence Offsets Facilitation Agency (DOFA).
According to the sources the new agency would be under the Department of Defence Production (DoDP).