New Delhi, Mar 24 (KNN) At present, there is no proposal to open any new lab in the country to check / investigate the defence products, Minister of State for Defence Dr. Subhash Bhamre has said.

He said the responsibility of quality assurance of raw material used in defence products rests with Organizations such as Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA), etc. 

“DGQA, DRDO, OFB, DPSUs and Armed forces already have their own laboratories or test facilities at various locations across the country to check / investigate the defence products,” Bhamre informed Parliament.

These agencies have offered some of their test facilities to private sector, details of which are available on their respective websites.

With regards to the achievements made by the Government after the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)-2016 came into effect from April 2016, the MoS Defence said, “Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) accorded approval of 136 capital procurement cases at an estimated cost of Rs. 4,00,714/- crore during the last two financial years (2014-15 and 2015-16) and current year 2016-17 (upto January 2017),  out of which 96 cases involving Rs. 2,46,417/- crore are under the ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’, ‘Buy (Indian)’, ‘Buy & Make (Indian)’, ‘Make’ categories.”

He said as many as 141 contracts with total value of Rs. 2,00,010/- Crore (approx.) were signed during the last two financial years (2014-15 and    2015-16) and current year 2016-17 (upto December 2016), out of which 90 contracts involving a value of Rs. 83,344/- crore (Approx) were signed with Indian vendors.

Capital expenditure of Rs. 1,75,420/- Crore (approx.) was incurred on purchase of defence items for Armed forces during the last two financial years (2014-15 and 2015-16) and current year 2016-17 (upto December 2016), out of which of Capital expenditure of     Rs. 1,05,030/- Crore (approx.) was incurred on purchase from Indian vendors.