Narendra Modi govt gives nod to largest ever naval project costing over Rs 20,000 crore

New Delhi: In a major move to ramp up naval strength, the defence ministry has given an in-principle approval for the construction of four amphibious assault ships, also called the Landing Platform Docks (LPD), in the private sector at a cost of over Rs 20,000 crore. [caption id=“attachment_1509657” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The new project is touted to be bigger than INS Vikrant. AFP[/caption] It will be the largest ever naval project involving the private sector and the ships will be the biggest to be built in India after the under-construction aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The long-pending project was given the green signal by the Defence Acquisition Council, the top decision-making body of the ministry, at its meeting on Saturday, informed sources. The meeting was chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley. Earlier, the ministry had indicated that two LPDs will be built by state-run Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, while select private firms will be awarded the contract to construct two others. Three private sector companies — Reliance Defence and Engineering Limited (RDEL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and ABG Shipyard — were in race initially for the mega project but ABG was disqualified on account of poor financial health. The sources said RDEL and Larsen and Toubro will be asked next week to submit fresh commercial bids for the four LPDs. L&T has tied up with Navantia of Spain whereas Reliance Defence has tied up with French firm DCNS, considered a global leader in the construction of LPDs. Each of the ships is likely to be in the range of 30,000 and 40,000 tonnes. The Navy has been strongly pushing for firming up the project as soon as possible. A top Navy official had said in April the contract for procurement of the four LPDs will be finalised by the end of 2016.