A high-level committee, set up by the Defence Ministry five months ago to identify Indian shipyards for building six conventional submarines worth over Rs50,000 crore, will submit its report this month end. The committee is in the process of identifying shipyards, private or public, capable of undertaking this complex project.
The selected shipyard would be allowed to have a joint venture with a foreign submarine manufacturer for this deal cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in October last year to give a boost to the Indian industry as part of the ‘Make in India’ drive. This project is known as Project 75-India.
Besides State-run shipyards including Mazagon Docks limited (MDl), Mumbai, Goa Shipyard, Hindustan Shipyard, Vishakhapatnam, Cochin Shipyard and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers limited, Kolkata, private players like larsen & Toubro (l&T) and Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Company are also in the reckoning for this ambitious project. Incidentally, MDlA is already making six Scorpene submarines with French collaboration.
The committee has visited all these shipyards in the country and will submit its report by April end, Controller of Warships Production and Acquisitions Vice-Admiral AV Subhedar, who heads the seven-member panel, said here on Thursday. He, however, refrained from giving further details about the front-runners for this mega deal.
The Defence Ministry will issue Request for Proposal (RFP) to specific ports that will be identified on the basis of the study which will look into whether they have the capacity and manpower to build the six submarines in the same port only besides other parameters.
The submarines will be Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) capable that will enable them to stay underwater for longer than a conventional submarine, besides, having enhanced stealth features.
The Navy currently has 13 operational submarines and the target set in 1999 was to have 24 by 2030. The UPA Government had gone in for six Scorpene submarines and the first submarine is likely to be delivered only in September 2016.
Meanwhile, India’s aircraft carrier INS Vikaramaditya, procured from Russia at a cost of more than $ 3 billion and inducted into the Navy in November 2013, will finally get its own air defence system after the Navy transfers Israeli-made Barak missile system from a Godavari-class ship scheduled to be decommissioned soon.
“We have a plan to install a system from one of our ships, which perhaps may be decommissioned at a subsequent stage. The system is operational and we have certain plans,” Subhedar told reporters.
At present, the aircraft carrier does not have any self-defence weapons on board, barring a chaff and flare system. A group of warships was sent to Russia to escort the carrier to India after a commissioning ceremony there.
The new installation of air defence system will take place during the ongoing ‘short refit’ of the carrier at the Karwar Naval Base. Vikramaditya, a floating airfield, has an overall length of about 284 metres and a maximum beam of about 60 metres, stretching as much as three football fields put together.
Standing about 20 storeys tall from the keel to the highest point, the ship has a total of 22 decks and carries 1,600 personnel and weighs more than 44,000 tonnes.