In a major fillip for the Indian Navy and Make in India, the Defence Ministry issued a tender expected to be worth around ₹50,000 crores for building six conventional submarines under Project-75 India.
The two Indian companies identified as the strategic partner would now select one partner each from the five global original equipment manufacturers including firms from France, Germany, Russia, South Korea and Spain, they added.
Clearance for issuing the tender or the request for proposal (RFP) was given in a meeting of the defence acquisition council chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on June 4.
Under Project 75-India, the Navy will build six conventional diesel-electric submarines that would be bigger than the under-construction Scorpene-class submarines being built at the Mazagon Dockyards Limited in Mumbai.
The submarines would be equipped with heavy-duty firepower so that the boats will have at least 12 Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACM) alongside Anti-Ship cruise missiles (ASCM).
The project is being carried out under the strategic partnership model which aims for promoting India as a manufacturing hub for defence equipment.