Last week a tussle had erupted over the project after the Indian Navy refrained from going ahead with a joint public-private bid while the defence ministry emphasised that such teaming arrangements should be considered, as per procurement guidelines

by Manu Pubby

India wants to produce six submarines domestically with a foreign technology partner under the P75 project. The contract is being processed under the ‘strategic partnership model’.

The defence ministry has decided to go ahead with its Rs 45,000 crore procurement plan with two Indian competitors - the state owned Mazagaon Docks Limited and private sector giant Larsen and Toubro.

A third bid that was put up by Adani Defence and the state owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) has not been cleared over grounds that clearances were not in place for the formulation of the joint venture that responded to the expression of interest.

As reported by ET, a tussle had emerged over the biggest Make in India project for the defence sector after the Navy has refrained from going ahead with the joint public-private bid while the defence production ministry had emphasised that such teaming arrangements should be considered

Clearing the way ahead for the mega plan, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has selected the two Indian companies and five foreign technology partners and all five foreign technology collaborators who applied to take part in the competition.

There is an urgent requirement of six next generation conventionally powered submarines. These submarines will have Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) technology to give them the ability to stay underwater for weeks.

These will be the last set of submarines to be built in India with foreign collaboration, next generation to be designed and develop domestically.