By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — In a departure from an earlier policy of awarding big-ticket defense programs to state-owned companies on a nomination basis, the Indian Ministry of Defence has decided to source four landing platform docks from private defense companies.
"MoD will shortly invite revised commercial bids for purchase of four LPD vessels costing around $3 billion from two shortlisted private defense companies because the price validity has expired [last month] and government-owned companies have been dropped from the program," according to a senior MoD official.
Under the 2013 tender, only two LPDs were to be built by a domestic private sector company and the remaining two vessels on nomination basis by state-owned company Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
Only domestic defense companies Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Defence and Engineering Limited, or RDEL — formerly known as Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering — could clear the financial and technical compliance completed last year.
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