New Delhi: If the latest move by the Union government to start a fresh process for acquisition of 12 advanced minesweepers for the Indian Navy is any indication, it has already nixed the much-hyped Made in India plan for the defence sector.
According to reports, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government has already called off the ambitious `32,000-crore venture to build 12 advanced minesweepers together with a South Korean company at the Navy’s Goa Shipyard.
The Indian Navy is in dire need of advanced minesweepers or mine counter-measure vessels (MCMVs), which are roughly 900-tonne dedicated warships that spot, track as well as wipe out underwater mines laid by enemy forces with a view to block harbours and offshore installations, thereby disturbing shipping and maritime trade. Currently, the Navy requires at least 24 MCMVs to guard the country’s east and west coasts, but it is being compelled to manage with just four minesweepers that are about 30 years old. In fact, the need for such special warships has become an urgent issue with China frequently sending its conventional and nuclear submarines capable of laying mines into the Indian Ocean.
Keeping the urgency in view, the Navy began an acquisition case in July 2005. During his tenure as the Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar had personally pushed the project despite the inordinate delay in the acquisition process. However, the government’s plans to construct these special warships at the Goa shipyard turned out to be a fiasco, as it has scrapped an agreement with Kangnam Corporation of South Korea.
Sources said the Goa Shipyard Ltd had to call off the negotiations with Kangnam Corporation following differences over a host of issues including terms and conditions for technology transfer. According to original understanding, the Goa Shipyard and the Kangam Corporation were to build 12 minesweepers in India under the Make in India initiative and the deliveries were to be completed within nine years of the start of the project. However, both sides struggled to finalise various key aspects of the project.
A parliamentary standing committee on defence last year had slammed the government for delay in procurement of the minesweepers and asked it to make efforts to fill the gap in the Navy’s capability. This month, the government decided to start afresh the acquisition process for the MCMVs. “We will issue fresh EoI (Expression of Interest) for the project very soon. It will be issued this month,” chairman of state-run Goa Shipyard Ltd Rear Admiral (Retd) Shekhar Mital told PTI.
The EoI is likely to be issued to a number of major foreign defence majors which build minesweepers. In actual fact, despite tall claims, the NDA government has failed to kick off the “Make in India” project in the defence sector in the last four years it has been in power. This is primarily owing to lack of necessary political push as well as follow-through coupled with bureaucratic log jams and long-drawn-out procedures, and commercial and technical wrangles.
As of now, no less than six mega projects worth over `3.5 lakh crore, including future infantry combat vehicles, naval multi-role choppers, light utility helicopters, fifth-generation fighter aircraft and MCMVs new-generation stealth submarines, are stuck at different stages of development. In fact, final contracts have not signed for any of these projects.
PNN/Agencies
