``If the pace of the project doesn't pick up then I will have to recommend calling it (the project) a day,'' said Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command.

Speaking informally to newspersons on Friday after the presentation of the prestigious ISO 9002 certificate to the Naval Dockyard, the C-in-C explained that the tax-payers' money was being spent on keeping the Vikrant at its berth for nearly two years. ``We are spending on electricity, water, food and the salaries of people running the ship. All of this is coming out of the naval budget. Also we cannot berth another ship there.''

The navy's chief grouse is that the state government has yet to sanction the Rs 5 crore that is necessary to immediately dry dock and refurbish theship. Repeated reminders to the state government by naval officials have gone unheeded. ``The ball is in the state government's court,'' Vice Admiral Singh said.

Earlier, at a brief ceremony, officials from the Indian Register of Quality System (IRQS) awarded the Naval Dockyard the ISO 9002 certification for 23 of its centres. This follows a certification given to four selected work centres at the dockyard in September last year.

The 23 work centres selected for the certification include the hull, outfitting, engineering, electrical, weapons and materials which cater to the repair work of warships.

``The naval dockyard is one of the few organisations in the armed forces and the first in the Indian Navy to have achieved this certification,'' Rear Admiral P Jaitly, Admiral Superintendent of the dockyard told the gathering. He later told newsmen that the dockyard had obtained commercial contracts worth Rs 3 crore. However, the navy has not adopted the ISO quality management system exclusively forcommercial ventures, Vice Admiral Singh clarified. ``It is to ensure quality within the navy and to satisfy ourselves that the dockyard is doing a good job as far as ships are concerned.''