The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the highest decision making body in the Defence Ministry to clear procurement proposals, on Saturday approved projects worth over Rs 80,000 crore. The biggest programme costing about Rs 50,000 crore is the construction of six conventional submarines powered by diesel in India under the ‘Make in India’ policy.
The other contracts to get the nod include purchase of Israeli-made anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), 12 Dornier aircraft for the Navy and armoured personnel carriers (BMP) for the Army.
Since the Narendra Modi Government assumed office in May, the DAC in its three meetings has, so far, cleared projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore with focus on indigenous production in collaboration with foreign vendors to boost the Indian Defence industry. The two earlier meetings held in July and August cleared projects worth over Rs 56,000 crore.
In the latest round of DAC deliberations chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday, other projects to get the go-ahead included procurement of rolling stock and radio relay containers for the Army besides two submersible vessels for the Navy to carry out special operations by its elite Marine Commandos (MARCOS).
Addressing the apex body, Jaitley said, “National security is of paramount importance for the Government. All hurdles and bottlenecks in procurement process should be addressed expeditiously so that pace of acquisition is not stymied.”
Carrying on with its ‘Make in India’ policy, the DAC scrapped the earlier proposal of buying two submarines from a foreign manufacturer and building the other four in Indian shipyards. Incidentally, the global tenders or request for proposal (RFP) for these submarines are yet to be issued though the Government had given the nod in 2007.
The DAC formed a sub-committee to study all the seven shipyards, including five Government and two private ones, for building six submarines in the country. The empowered panel will inspect the capability of these yards and following its recommendations, the Government will issue a tender to the suitable yard, Defence officials said here after the DAC meeting.
The seven shipyards include five Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), including Mazagon Docks limited, Goa Shipyard, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Cochin Shipyard and Hindustan Shipyard. Pipavav and larsen & Toubro are the two private players.
At present, India has 15 submarines, including one nuclear powered platform Chakra, and desperately needs more submarines to maintain operational preparedness. Six Scorpene submarines are under construction at Mazagon Docks and the first vessel is expected to go for trials the end of next year.
The submarine project cleared on Saturday will have advanced stealth features besides air independent propulsion and land attack missile launching capability, officials said. Procurement of two submersible vessels for special commando operations was also given the go-ahead and its total cost will be about Rs 2,000 crore, they said.
In an effort to enhance maritime surveillance, a project to manufacture 12 more Dornier aircraft also got the approval of the DAC. The Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) will build these planes at a total cost of Rs 1,850 crore. The Navy at present has more than 45 Dorniers.
As regards, the Army, the long pending procurement of anti-tank guided missiles got through with the DAC approving Israeli-made Spike after extensive trials by the user. The contract is worth over Rs 3,200 crore for 8,000 missiles and 300 launchers and they will be bought off the shelf. The subsequent lot of missiles will be manufactured in India under the transfer of technology pact, sources said.
The Government also approved production of 363 armoured personnel carriers (BMP-II) at a cost of Rs 1,800 crore. Ordnance Factory in Medak will manufacture these vehicles. Similarly, the army was allowed to buy 1,761 radio relay containers carrying electronic warfare system mounted on vehicles and it will cost Rs 662 crore.
Another crucial project to replace rolling stock, including special rail wagons which are more than 40 years old for transporting tanks and heavy weaponry, was also cleared. This contract to procure 1,768 wagons is pegged at Rs 740 crore.