Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to France, French defence major Naval Group has announced that it is unable to participate in the P-75 India (P-75I) project under which six conventional submarines are to be built in India for the Indian Navy.
The group, one of the five shortlisted international players for the Rs 43,000-crore project, said it cannot meet conditions of the Request for Proposal (RFP) and will, therefore, not continue with its bid.
The project is the largest under the new strategic partnership model which will see an international Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partner with an Indian company to manufacture submarines in India, and share the technology.
The P-75I is the second project to build submarines in India — the Naval Group just completed building six Kalvari class (Scorpene class) conventional submarines under the P-75 project in partnership with the Mazagon Dockyard Shipbuilding Limited (MDL) in India. The P-75 project was signed in 2005 (Naval Group was called DCNS then) and of the six, four submarines have already been commissioned into the Navy. The sixth in the class was launched last month and is expected to be commissioned late next year.
