|
Indian government to allow Private Shipyards to construct Naval Ships |
|
|
|
Written by Anand
|
|
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 |
New Delhi: Under its new policies, the Ministry of Defence will start allowing private Indian shipyards to construct naval ships and stop nominating government-owned companies in the Naval contracts.
Until now the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) would nominate PSUs as the production agency for defence contracts. From January 2011 the defence shipyards will have to compete with the private shipyards for the tenders.
Defence Minister A K Antony said that initially the policy would be applicable for Navy only. However gradually it would be extended to other two forces also. He was speaking at a function to present Raksha Mantri's Awards for Excellence for the Year 2008-09 to Ordinance Factories (OFs) and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).
He said that the 'Buy Indian Make Indian' category would constitute a major component of the defence procurement policy. The Ministry will procure equipment for the Navy under this category and private shipyards will compete for the tenders along with the PSU defence shipyards.
Antony said that the indigenisation process in the defence sector was very slow and that a 65-70 per cent dependence on imports for defence equipment was not a good situation.
"We will support the PSUs but at the same time PSUs alone would not be able to meet the requirements of the armed forces," he said. |
