Navy’s minesweeper deal falls through after S Korea talks fail

NEW DELHI: Negotiations with a South Korean shipyard for new minesweeper vessels have collapsed at the final stage, delivering a blow to the Indian Navy’s efforts to shore up its mine-warfare capability, a top government official involved in the project said on Sunday.

The ~32,640-crore programme for 12 new mine counter-measure vessels (MCMVS), to be built at Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) in collaboration with a Busan-based yard, Kangnam Corporation, was pegged as one of the costliest Make in India initiatives.

But the failed talks with the South Korean yard over pricing have left the government with no choice but to begin a fresh global hunt for minesweepers. “We were unable to resolve commercial complications despite our best efforts. This particular deal with the Koreans is off,” GSL chairman Rear Admiral Shekhar Mital (retd) told Hindustan Times.

Minesweepers are deployed to secure harbours by locating and destroying mines. The Indian Navy has been struggling to scale

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up its mine-warfare capability. Its current mine counter-measure force consists of six vessels bought from the erstwhile Soviet Union in the late 1970s while experts say the navy requires at least 24 minesweepers to secure major harbours in the country.

The situation is likely to worsen as the existing minesweeper fleet is to be decommissioned between 2018 and 2020.

Mital said a fresh request for proposal (RFP) will be issued to foreign military contractors for the technology transfer for the MCMV project.

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