Can’t give ‘lame excuses’ for project delays: DRDO chief

Kolkata, June 23

As it faces flak for delays in executing defence projects, the state-run DRDO chief today said it couldn’t give “lame excuses” and that the reasons for the hold-up were being explained to the government.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at the same time said it was not only ready to compete with foreign companies, but also to export products in the wake of the FDI reforms unveiled in the defence sector.

On Monday, the government announced the opening up of the defence sector by allowing foreign companies to own up to 100 per cent equity.

When asked at a news conference about the repeated delays in the execution of various projects by the DRDO, its Director General S Christopher said when those programmes and projects were taken up they never realised the complexity.

“If I have said seven years (for delivering a product), then at the end of seven years someone will knock at my door. So that is the problem of miscalculation of number of years,” he said.

The second issue, he noted, was that during the gestation period the requirement of the defence forces sometimes increases and therefore the product development takes more time.

“A new product takes a lot of time (to develop) even in other countries. When you take submarines, it takes not less than three decades. Air-borne air-warning system has taken not less than 15 years even in the US. We are also in a similar situation,” he said.

“These are areas where we are stuck. We can’t give lame excuses. We are explaining these to the government,” he said.

The DRDO, functioning under the Ministry of Defence, undertakes design and development of products and technologies to suit the requirement of the three wings of the Indian armed forces. “There may be a possibility when a big company with 100 per cent FDI comes with its technology and gives us competition. We are raring to go for the competition,” he said.

On the government’s thrust on “Make in India”, Christopher said it was a bonanza as far as DRDO was concerned. — PTI