NEW DELHI: Indian Air Force fighter bases are facing serious issues related to a shortage of hangars and blast pens for the soon-to-arrive Rafale and Sukhoi fighter jets. Fund crunch in the Defence Ministry has almost brought work on new blast pens and hangars to a stop.
The hangars being constructed to house the Rafale, besides the maintenance work of hangars to house Sukhois at the Gwalior Airbase has also slowed down since January this year with just one to 2 per cent of the contracted work for this year completed. Overall, just 40% of the work on Rafale hangars and 30% of Sukhoi related pens have been completed.
Sources said MoD was due to pay about Rs 2,000 crore to the Military Engineering Services (MES) contracted builders by January this year but only Rs 230 crore was released, that too after association members met Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to apprise her on the situation.
President of the MES Builders Association of India (BAI), Praveen Mahana, said, “Till January only 40% work for the Rafale related hangar, approach route and associated work for two new squadrons being done at Ambala in Punjab and Hashimara in West Bengal, were completed."
“The Sukhoi hangars are stuck with just 30-35% work completed,” Mahana said. MES contractors have stopped work as the bill raised against work has not been paid yet.
The MES BAI, a registered body, has been raising the issue of non-payment for various Armed Forces related projects across the country since January 2018.
At the beginning of this year, the association had warned the MoD that it was getting difficult to carry on work due to paucity of funds.
The liability till December 2018 was Rs 1,600 crore.