Opinion- AW-101s- How do you define On Hold?

Neelam Mathews

April 19, 2013

We're told Augusta Westland AW 101s VVIP helios contract is ‘on hold’. Interestingly, the contract does not have this clause and there is no laid out document that describes the two deadly words!

Incidentally, also on hold are ten containers from AW lying in the customs for weeks containing spares, tools, consumables. What is the guarantee that water leakage is not happening already or that the heat may affect solvents etc that might be in the containers? Can there be some sanity to the idiom ‘on hold’ here? Who will pay for this ultimately, one wonders? Not difficult to fathom!

A definition on the net describes ‘On Hold’ –“to stop all activity or communication with someone” and also “to postpone something; to stop the progress of something,” and I can bet a wager there are hundreds more. So while India might consider it to mean ALL its dealings stop in the interim, AW might not. Word has it they are sticking to the schedule for delivery as 6 more flanking machines get rolled out in its factory. Three are already awaiting delivery.

Hopefully, our government is cognizant of this before it gets embroiled in court cases it might find tedious to handle. A decision should be made fast. What happened to the CBI enquiry?

AerospaceDiary learns from a senior official that only 20-50 flying hours are left of the 3 AW101s IAF has taken delivery of before spares are needed. Meanwhile, we hear IAF is  doing ‘bare minimum of flying’ to ensure its pilots’ currency does not lapse and the machines are kept moving.

With elections around the corner, one would have thought this would be an urgent issue that needs to be sorted out. Instead we hear the government is lying low, waiting for the ill winds to blow away. So, who is going to bell the cat, we wonder?