Several fast interception crafts (FICs) of the Indian Navy remained non-operational from 2014 to 2019 due to defective engines for extended periods, a parliamentary committee said in its report on Wednesday.

Public Accounts Committee Flays Navy For Delays In Deployment Special Prahari Bal

In its report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also flayed the Navy, saying it is yet to achieve the complete deployment of officers for the Special Prahari Bal (SPB), despite a significant lapse of 12 years since the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) sanctioned it in February 2009. The SPB is a maritime force envisaged following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack with a primary focus on providing security to all coastal and offshore naval assets by carrying out patrolling through FICs.

The formation of the SPB was sanctioned in February 2009 by the CCS with a complement of 1,000 personnel comprising 120 officers, 240 senior sailors and 640 junior sailors to be based at 13 Indian naval ports. “Audit observed that complete deployment of officers for SPB was not achieved despite a lapse of 12 years since the CCS’s sanction (February 2009),” the committee headed by Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.

The PAC said it had observed that “from 2014 to 2019, several FICs remained non-operational due to defective engines for extended periods”. In this regard, the committee said the Navy informed it that there was no support from any OEM (original equipment maker), CMC (comprehensive maintenance contract) and AMC (annual maintenance contract) firms from October 2013 to October 2015 and subsequently, from July 2017 to Feb 2018.

Recommendation

The committee, in this context, recommended that the Navy may adopt a systematic approach to conclude annual maintenance contracts well in time to ensure timely repairs and maintenance and avoid the occurrence of such instances of non-availability of AMCs in the future. The committee said it had observed the issue of “defective and sub-optimal Optical Surveillance Equipment (OSS) on the FICs, with a certain number of cameras being only partially operational as of July 2019”.