Indian Navy’s Rs 32,000-Crore Minesweepers Project Falls Through

The Navy has 4 minesweepers to protect 14 ports, it reportedly needs 24 MCMVs to guard the east and west coastline.

Minesweeper vessels.

(Photo: The Quint)

The ministry of defense has cancelled the Rs 32,000-crore project to indigenously manufacture 12 minesweepers at Goa Shipyard Limited, ministry sources told The Times of India.

The defense ministry will reportedly announce the tender for the project again. A naval officer based at Mumbai's western command headquarters told TOI that the Indian navy has been left with just four minesweepers to protect India’s 14 ports. The Navy reportedly needs 24 MCMVs to guard the east and west coastline of India.

The Goa Shipyard has been asked to issue a new global expression of interest (EoI) for the mine counter-measure vessels (MCMVs) after which a fresh RFP (request for proposal) or tender will follow.

Final negotiations with Kangnam were stuck for long because it wanted deviations from the original RFP. There were also some ToT (transfer of technology), build strategy and cost problems

A ministry source told TOI

The process was initiated by former defense minister Manohar Parrikar in association with a South Korean firm.

The ministry is looking for shipyards that specialise in building MCMVs, with non-magnetic hulls and high-definition sonars, acoustic and magnetic sweeps to detect marooned and drifting mines. The vessels then use remote-controlled systems like small underwater vehicles to detonate the mines at safe distances.

(With inputs from TOI)