Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS) India’s defence public sector shipyards have lost to private players for construction of a number of naval vessels in recent times, Defence Minister A.K. Antony informed the Lok Sabha Monday.

In written reply to questions, Antony said the defence shipyards have cited higher wages for its workers and time overruns for procurement of material for ship construction have pushed the cost of its shipbuilding.

The contracts for which the private shipyards have scored over the defence shipyards included naval offshore patrol vessels, barges, hovercraft, fast patrol vessels, interceptor boars, cadet training ships and fast interceptor craft.

“Defence shipyards lost to private yards (for these vessels),” Antony said.

“The defence shipyard have indicated that major reasons of losing out are … higher wage rates for the labour and thereby increase in overheads, and longer time taken to procure the materials by observing the laid down procedures thus pushing up their prices,” he added.

For indigenously building ships and other naval craft, the defence shipyards are, in accordance with the defence procurement procedure, 2011, awarded some contracts on nomination basis, while other contracts are awarded on competitive basis.

“The shipyards are participating with private yards in an open competition. In some of the cases, they have lost out to private shipyards,” Antony said.

To enhance their competitive edge in future, measures are being taken, including modernisation of the defence shipyards with latest state-of-the-art facilities and introducing modern integrated construction methodology, strengthening of design and production facilities, and induction of manpower both at the skilled worker level and at management level.

In reply to another question, Antony told the house that Indian Navy has experience in successfully designing difference classes of warships.

“The experience has enabled the Indian Navy to embark upon the design and construction of the indigenous aircraft carrier at Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi,” he said.

Antony noted that the Indian Navy has sought inputs from abroad in specialised areas of design such as the propulsion system integration and aviation facilities complex.

The government accorded sanction in January 2003 for construction of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier in CSL and the construction of the warship is underway there at present.