01 April 2016

News Story: Kangnam Selected by India To Build Minesweepers

Vivek Raghuvanshi

GOA, India — South Korea's Kangnam Corporation has emerged as a sole bidder to respond to a global expression of interest (EOI) floated by India's state-owned Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) last year to jointly build 12 mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV).

A source with GSL described the response and said the joint effort would cost the Indian Navy $5 billion.

Since Kangnam is the sole respondent to the EOI, leading to a single vendor situation, GSL had sought special permission from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month to go ahead with selecting the South Korean company as its technology transfer partner.

Last week, the MoD accepted the GSL's proposal, paving the way for inking the contract with Kangnam, a GSL source said.

Kangnam will transfer technology and help in the production of the MCMVs. However, no details of the business arrangement between the South Korean company and GSL is known.

Read the full story at DefenseNews