Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju today said the first of the six Scorpene submarine, being developed by french-based DCNS with Indian skills, is expected to be rolled out in India by 2015. Remaining submarines will be commissioned by 2018, said Mr Raju. The Minister was addressing a press conference after inaugurating SEC Industries and DCNS workshop facilities here.
The submarines are being constructed at the state-owned Mazagon Dockyards Ltd (MDL) under transfer of technology from French firm DCNS, a world leader in naval defence.
Total cost of the project is over Rs 20,000 crore and as per the schedule, hulks of six submarines, considered as a critical part, should be manufactured by the year-end, the Minister said.
Replying to a question, he said India has got huge investments so far due to Indian Defence Offset Policy that mandates foreign defence equipment suppliers to farm out a certain proportion of the work (30 per cent of the contract value) to Indian suppliers. DCNS India signed a contract with SEC Industries for the manufacture of high technological equipment for the P75 Scorpene submarines in September 2011. The second contract was signed in May this year for additional items. Hyderabad-based SEC manufacturing 14 components, including critical items using in scorpene submarines under P75 project. UNI