The Defence Ministry on Tuesday issued the Request For Proposal (RFP) for construction of six advanced conventional submarines for the Navy under Project-75I.
The deal which has been delayed is the first under the strategic partnership model of the procurement procedure to make progress.
“The RFP was issued to shortlisted Strategic Partners (SPs) or Indian applicant companies for the project viz, Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T),” the Defence Ministry said. The project cost is estimated upwards of ₹40,000 crore.
The Indian SP partners have to respond to the RFP within 12 weeks. They are free to tie up with any of the five Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) that have been shortlisted earlier.
The procurement process now gets under way and will take at least two years for the deal to be signed, a defence official said.
Indigenous construction
Project-75I envisages indigenous construction of six modern conventional submarines with contemporary equipment, weapons and sensors including Fuel-Cell based Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system, advanced torpedoes, modern missiles and state-of-the-art countermeasure systems.
In January 2020, DAC had shortlisted Mazgaon Docks Limited (MDL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) as the Indian partners for the P-75I deal. The five foreign OEMs include Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (South Korea), Naval Group (France), Navantia (Spain), Rosoboronexport (Russia) and TKMS (Germany).
In January 2020, the DAC had shortlisted the Mazgaon Docks Limited (MDL) and the L&T as the Indian partners for the deal and five foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) have already been selected. The Indian companies will now respond to the RFP in partnership with one of the OEMs.
The five OEMs include Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (South Korea), Naval Group (France), Navantia (Spain), Rosoboronexport (Russia) and TKMS (Germany).
Dedicated manufacturing lines
The OEMs will be the technology partner in the SP Model, the statement said. The OEM will enable the Indian firms in setting up a dedicated manufacturing lines for the submarines, their construction and achieving high levels of indigenisation through Transfer of Technology (ToT).
“To achieve these objectives, the RFP has key features like mandatory level of indigenous manufacture of platforms, ToT for design, manufacture and maintenance of submarines and a few critical equipment and systems, setting up of an eco-system in India for such indigenisation and incentivisation for other key technologies, etc.,” the Ministry said.
