Russia Selects Pipavav For Indian $3 Billion Warship Project

The Russian government has chosen Pipavav shipyard as their partner for India’s more than $3 billion warship building project.

After an evaluation of several Indian shipyards, Russian government has formally informed the Indian defense ministry that it has selected Pipavav as its Indian partner for the project. Anil Ambani’s Reliance group recently bought Pipavav shipyard.

The Indian Navy battling to increase fleet strength, the government has been in advanced talks for the past several months with Russia for three to four upgraded Talwar class frigates, classified as Project 11356 vessels.

Russia had to look out for an Indian partner for the project as the order will be placed under the Make in India program.

Economic Times news daily reported today that a formal letter from the  Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) director Alexander Fomin last week confirming the partnership.

The contract for the new frigates is likely to be in the form of a government-to-government order with Russia and could be signed this financial year with delivery expected over the next six to eight years. Vice-chief of naval staff, Vice-Admiral P Murugesan, has confirmed that exploratory talks have been on and, when decided, the frigate order will be under the Make in India initiative.

Russia had assigned a team led by its deputy industry and trade minister Alexei Rakhmanov evaluated Indian shipyards, Mazgaon Dockyard Ltd, Cochin Shipyard Ltd and L&T for the project and finally selected Pipavav based on infrastructure availability and capacity.

A team led by Russian deputy industry and trade minister Alexei Rakhmanov has been evaluating Indian shipyards for the project over the past few months. Among the yards visited were Mazgaon Dockyard Ltd, Cochin Shipyard Ltd and the L&T unit, with the final selection being based on the availability of infrastructure and capacity. Pipavav, which is currently executing a naval offshore patrol vessel order, has India’s largest shipbuilding facility.

 “We are fully committed to the Make in India vision of our Prime Minister. Our mission is to build higher capabilities at the world-class facility that we have, to be able to serve the complete requirement of the Indian Navy,” ET quoted a Reliance spokesperson as saying.

“We are ready to transfer technology to ensure the construction of these ships in India. The new ships that will be built will be different and more modern from the Talwar class that have been delivered,” Alexi Dikiy, director for military technical cooperation at USC was quoted as saying by the news daily.