25 February 2016

News Story: Competitors Challenge Low Bid in Indian Navy Radar Tender

By Vivek Raghuvanshi

NEW DELHI — Competing companies in the Indian Navy's surface surveillance radar (SSR) tender question whether the low bidder will be able to produce the radar at its proposed cost.

A partnership of India's Nova Integrated Systems and Terma of Denmark emerged as the low bidder, say Indian Defence Ministry sources.

Nova's bid is more than five times lower than the highest bidder, MoD sources say. Nova Integrated Systems quoted $30 million against rivals Tata Power SED with $44 million and Mahindra Defence Systems with $173 million.

No executive of  Nova or Terma group were available to comment on the huge difference in their bid.

The SSR tender was the first issued in the Buy and Make (India) category.

"If the  procurement of SSR does not yield results, than it will be a big blow to the Make in India initiative itself," say Nitin Mehta, a defense analyst here.

Read the full story at DefenseNews