Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 3: France’s Naval Group announced on Tuesday that it will be unable to participate in the Centre’s P-75I project, under which six conventional submarines will be domestically built for the Indian Navy. This is due to conditions mentioned in the request for proposal (RFP) related to air independent propulsion (AIP) system.
The announcement by Naval Group comes just one day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Paris, where he will meet newly re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron.
The AIP technology allows a conventional submarine to stay submerged in water for extended periods of time at faster speeds. The P-75I project was sanctioned by the Defense Ministry in June of last year, and RFPs were then given to two shortlisted Indian companies: Larsen and Toubro and Mazagaon Docks Limited.
According to the Defence Ministry, the two Indian companies (referred to as strategic partners) must form a partnership with one of the five shortlisted foreign companies – ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (Germany), Navantia (Spain) and Naval Group (France), Daewoo (South Korea), and Rosoboronexport (Russia) – before responding to the RFP.
The Defence Ministry will award the 43,000 crore deal after a thorough review of the submissions submitted by the two key partners.
