Article Posted on : - Nov 08, 2012

NEW DELHI (PTI): Amid apprehensions of a budgetary cut and economic slowdown, Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday asked the Armed Forces to focus mainly on projects affecting their operational readiness in the remaining part of the fiscal.

In a meeting, he told the three Services Vice Chiefs that they should adopt a "focussed approach" for the remaining part of the financial year and speed up procurements which have a direct linkage to their operational readiness, sources said here.

This would include ammunition for tank regiments, the long-pending infrastructure projects in the northeastern states and weapon platforms for the three Services, they said.

The minister will also hold separate meetings on infrastructure projects in Arunachal Pradesh including the road network to be laid there.

He would review the progress on the delayed Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) being constructed at Kochi at the government shipyard there.

Former Army chief V K Singh had written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh highlighting critical shortages in certain areas including tank ammunition and air defence systems of his force.

Since then, the government has taken several steps including clearance of two major projects for anti-tank ammunition worth over Rs 15,000 crore to do away with the shortage of these ammunition.

The meeting comes at a time when there is a possibility of a budget cut in view of the economic slowdown.

The Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs 1.93 lakh crore for the current fiscal but it had made a demand for additional funds of more than Rs 40,000 crore for meeting its capital requirements.

The Defence Ministry has undertaken a major defence modernisation project under which it is planning to spend $100 billion on procurements for Armed Forces in the next five to 10 years.

In recent times, the Services have also been asked to prioritise their procurements and avoid duplication in acquisitions.

The major Indian defence procurement programmes include the multi-billion dollar deal for procuring 126 multi-role combat aircraft, over $2 billion deal for procuring six mid-air refuelling tankers, six additional C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the US.

In recent times, the Defence Ministry has cleared several proposals expected to be worth over Rs 600,000 crore at the meetings of the Defence Acquisition Council.