India gets its own submarine assembly workshop
MUMBAI: In a major step towards self-sufficiency in the area of submarine construction for the Indian Navy, defence minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurated a state-of-the-art submarine assembly workshop at the Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Limited on Saturday.
Built at a cost of Rs153 crore, the workshop is capable of building five submarines concurrently. This will ensure lesser delays in building submarines in the long run, as well as for the envisaged second line of Scorpene submarines under Project P 75I.
“The project might go through a strategic partner. A strategic partnership route is being discussed. Once we finalise the modalities, we may go for P75I selection where nearly 40 to 45 per cent of the submarine will have to be built indigenously, ” said Parrikar.
India had acquired the capacity to build submarines in the early 80s and had built two submarines, INS Shalki and INS Shankul under a technology transfer agreement with German HDW. But then, for nearly two decades, no other submarines were built after India decided to buy Kilo class submarines from Russia.
When questioned how India would keep up with its submarinebuilding skills, Parrikar said, “The skill which we acquired 24 years ago had gone to waste because there was no work. We are planning to sustain the skill we have acquired.”