Indian Coast Guard’s Helicopter Leasing Plan in Limbo

"External pressure" seems to delay, if not scuttle the Indian Coast Guard (ICG)'s plan to acquire helicopters on dry lease. Acccording to a November 2011 communication to the Ministry of Defence, one of the bidders, OSS Air has said that external pressure was thwarting the ICG's bidding process. In its letter to the MoD, OSS Air complained that the commercial bid was to be opened on 23rd August 2011. However, the bid was not opened on that date due to “technical reasons”. It was intimated that the commercial bid would be opened within a fortnight, but even after two months of the schedule date of opening of the bids, the Indian bidder is yet to hear, the letter claims. As these helicopters are specifically customized to be compliant for coast guard operations, keeping them earmarked for longer periods could affect their availability as well as budget estimates, the Indian bidder stated. The letter claims that if the ICG had deployed surveillance helicopters, then incidents last year of two foreign registered vessels running aground off the coast of Mumbai would not have happened. OSS Air is bidding to supply AgustaWestland helicopters customised in India as per ICG specifications, while the other bidder is Sikorksy of the U.S. Ironically, the helicopter dry lease procurement was supposed to be an urgent requirement to be concluded within a matter of months to plug a critical gap in ICG capability. However, nearly a year after the issue of of RFP, the seems to be no forward movement. The dry lease plan, in which the bidder provides the helicopter while ICG pilots will fly the helicopter was resorted to avoid protracted negotiations of a direct purchase.