NEW DELHI – A defence deal expected to cost over Rs 2,000 crore to buy 20Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer planes is likely to be called off by the AirForce as the negotiations for it have been stuck for almost three years nowover steep price hike by the vendors, India today has reported.

The Air Force is also not interested in the upgrade of its fleet of over120 Hawk planes that were inducted into service after a deal with Britainin 2004. The HAL is offering to upgrade the Hawk fleet of the Air Force toHawk India jets by adding combat capabilities, government sources told MailToday.

“The benchmark price of each aircraft was around Rs 90 crore but theinitial price offered by the vendors including the public sector HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL) was more than double,” the sources said.

“In the contract negotiations, the vendors have cut down the price but evennow, the price offered is more than 60 per cent of what the defenceministry is willing to pay for the planes,” they said.

Another reason over which the deal may be called off is that due togovernment’s directive for utilising the funds optimally, the priority ofthe ministry is to buy more of war fighting equipment rather than go in forsystems that do not fit that bill, the sources said.