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| INS Jalashwa (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — The Indian Navy may as early as this month begin the commercial bidding process for its $2.6 billion program to build four 20,000-ton landing platform docks (LPD), following the final selection of two domestic vendors.
NEW DELHI — The Indian Navy may as early as this month begin the commercial bidding process for its $2.6 billion program to build four 20,000-ton landing platform docks (LPD), following the final selection of two domestic vendors.
Only Reliance Defence and Engineering Limited (RDEL) — formerly known as Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering — and private sector business Larsen & Toubro (L&T) cleared the financial and technical tests from September. A third vendor, ABG Shipyard, which has a technical relationship with Alion of the United States, could not clear the tests because it failed to restructure its debts, a senior Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) official said.
L&T has a tie-up with Navantia of Spain, and RDEL with DCNS of France.
No ABG Shipyard executive would comment on the outcome of the Indian Navy's routine technical and financial tests.
The Navy floated the tender in 2013 for production of four LPDs, and bids were sent to domestic shipyards, L&T, RDEL, and ABG Shipyard.
Under the program, two LPDs will be built by a private shipyard, and then state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited will build the remaining two LPDs at the same cost.
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