By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI:Ministry of Defence has signed contracts worth Rs 53,866.50 crore with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) and Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) for the acquisition of eight Next Generation Corvettes (NGCs) for the Indian Navy. The contracts were inked in the presence of Defence Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh at Kartavya Bhawan-2, New Delhi on November 02.
Under the contracts, GRSE will construct five corvettes, while GSL will construct the remaining three. The project marks a significant milestone in India’s indigenous warship design and construction capabilities, as it is the first project in which the ships will be indigenously designed by the Indian Navy and constructed by Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) selected through a competitive process.
The NGCs will be equipped with state-of-the-art capabilities, including advanced missiles, weapons and sensor suites, enabling them to undertake missions across the air, surface and sub-surface domains. The induction of these ships will significantly enhance the Indian Navy’s operational capabilities in safeguarding maritime trade routes, conducting anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare operations, strengthening coastal defence, undertaking littoral combat operations, and carrying out maritime presence and surveillance missions.
The NGC project will provide a significant impetus to India’s indigenous shipbuilding ecosystem by strengthening collaboration among DPSUs, private shipyards and Indian industrial partners, including MSMEs. The construction of these ships is expected to generate approximately 72 lakh person-days of employment in the shipyards and 460 lakh person-days in ancillary industries and MSMEs over the next ten years.
By promoting the use of Made-in-India materials and equipment, indigenous technologies, and Indian skills and expertise, the project represents a major step towards achieving Aatmanirbharta in defence manufacturing and reinforces Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi-led Government’s commitment to Make-in-India.
