Indian Navy’s three-decade-old fleet of minesweepers is
depleting at a fast rate and yet, a Rs 24,000-crore contract proposal to
augment it with eight new Korean-made vessels is entangled in the Defence
Ministry’s red tape for nearly three years now. The Mine Counter-Measure
Vessels (MCMV)—capable of minesweeping and mine hunting are critical to naval
operations. They help in carrying out sweeps at the entry and exit points of
dockyards to sanitise these passageways of enemy mines ahead of Indian warships
sailing out to the sea. India had, after a decade-long procurement process,
zeroed in on the South Korean shipyard, Pusan-based Kangnam Corporation, as the
lowest bidder in a tender for construction of MCMVs for the Indian Navy in
2010. It was said then that the Defence Ministry would complete its cost
negotiations with Kangnam, which best Italian Intermarine to the contract, and
issue the orders for building the vessels within two months.“Three years since,
the contract negotiations have not happened and the contract proposal for the
MCMV is now buried among files in the defence ministry,” lamented a senior
Indian Navy officer, when The Sunday Standard asked him about the progress in
the minesweepers procurement.
The Navy had expected the Defence Ministry to conclude the
contract as soon as Kangnam was identified as the foreign shipyard to provide
the minesweepers in view of the urgency felt in adding these specialist vessels
in to the fleet. With a variety of naval mines that are triggered by pressure,
acoustic or electro-magnetic signals from a surface warship or a submarine
available in the arms bazaar, these are some of the cheapest ways to sink an
enemy warship. Laying of these mines are quite easily done and hence the threat
perception from these self-contained explosives to warships are quite high,
Navy officers pointed out. “Hence the urgency in procuring these specialist
vessels and inducting them as early as humanly possible,” they added.
According to the
tenders, the chosen shipyard was to build the first two MCMVs and the rest six
were to be constructed at Goa Shipyard Limited under a licence, with technology
transfer being part of the contract. This was to create capabilities at GSL to
build minesweepers in the future, as a requirement for more of these vessels was
envisioned. Navy officers noted that Kangnam’s selection itself was done after
crossing hurdles, as its competitors had moved the Central Vigilance Commission
(CVC) in 2010 against the Indian choice of the Korean firm as the lowest
bidder. Detailed explanations to the CVC had settled the issue in favour of
Kangnam by April 2011. Since then, no progress has been made in the procurement
process, they added.
Just over a decade ago, the Navy was operating 12 of
Pondicherry/Karwar class of minesweepers, but had to decommission five of them
after completion of their serviceable life. INS Pondicherry, the first of this
class of minesweepers, was built by Russia and commissioned in 1978. It was
decommissioned in 2007. Since then, four other minesweepers of this class too
have been decommissioned at regular intervals. The last of the Karwar class of
minesweepers was commissioned in 1988 and this class of warships has completed
the serviceable life of 20 years and has entered the obsolescence phase. The
Navy, at present, operates seven Pondicherry/Karwar class of minesweepers in
its fleet, of which one is based in Mumbai and the rest six in Visakhapatnam.
These seven vessels have gone through a midlife upgrade to extend their service
life by another decade and for adding latest technologies to boost their
capabilities. “Yet, these minesweepers’ hull is still old. How long can the
Navy flog these old horses?" wondered another officer. The officers
pointed out that even if the MCMV contract was awarded this year, the first two
vessels would not be delivered before 2018 and GSL would take another two to
four years before completing its part of the contract for rest of the fleet.
Source: The New Indian Express -
By
10th June 2013
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