Whilst ships of 3,500 tonnes are globally built in 30 months, Indian national shipyards take as much as 72 months
Despite the huge warship demand and potential, our national shipyards are unable to deliver the requisite numbers in the desired time-frame, Admiral (Retd.) Sureesh Mehta, former Chief of Naval Staff, has said.
Presenting his theme address during a one-day seminar on ‘Building the builders Navy: Accelerating self-reliance through partnership,’ jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and National Maritime Foundation (NMF) in Chennai, he stated: “In Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) shipyards, wherein the Navy has invested considerable sums of money and expertise, they have indeed made an invaluable contribution in terms of establishing warship building knowledge and technology in India, but they have not been able to achieve levels of capacity and productivity of leading modern shipyards for a variety of constraints.”
Despite fiscal and institutional support from the Navy, infrastructure in these shipyards has not kept pace with modern shipbuilding at optimum cost, quality and within time frames offered by contemporary global shipyards, rued Mr. Mehta.
Lambasting the system for the current crisis, he remarked: “Whilst the shipyards have been over-active in pressing for their efforts at grabbing orders and insisting on nomination without any competition, there has been scant regard towards improving capacity and productivity, which continues to be much below international standards.”
“In terms of build-time trends, it is almost four times more than anywhere in the world. Whilst ships of 3,500 tonnes are globally built in 30 months, we (Indian national shipyards) take as much as 72 months,” Mr. Mehta pointed out.
The public shipyards, with a tight form of bureaucratic control, have shown considerable lack of accountability in perspective planning, the retired Chief of Naval Staff added. Should corrective action not be initiated in time, this is bound to impact heavily on our maritime security interests, he warned.
LOGIC OF PPP
Speaking about the need for PPP model in defence ship building, he observed: “The need for a systemic correction has long been felt, and I do believe that it becomes inevitable that we tap the strengths of the private industry for the benefit of the nation at large.”
Following the Public-Private Partnership model, we could get the benefit of combining private enterprise and capital with public sector expertise and capacities and PPP has the potential to transform the Indian shipbuilding industry, Mr. Mehta opined.
Some baby-steps have been taken by the Government, and the defence procurement procedure of 2011 aims to provide a level playing field to private shipyards, allowing them to bid for ship-building contracts at par with DPSUs, he said and added that if fairness, transparency and honest intent indeed become the order of the day, then we should see a welcome transformation in our ship-building capacity and capability in the days ahead.
LIMITATIONS
Speaking about the bottlenecks, Mr. Mehta remarked: “India has severe limitations in design capability (in ship building). Vital gaps remain in design/development areas like vulnerability, survivability, stealth technologies, effects of shocks/ blasts on ship construction and hydrodynamics of high spread marine vehicles and submarines.”
Appealing for leveraging the expertise of the private sector, he pointed out: “Through an effective and proactive collaboration between private and public sectors and an imaginative and evolving offsets policy, we should be able to reinvigorate the ship building sector.”
MEASURES
Batting for strong measures, the retired Admiral said: “It is clear that concrete measures are required to be taken to meet the demand for warships ensuing from the future plans of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard. “
Apart from measures for the revitalization of DPSU shipyards for increasing productivity and capacity, we need to look at the PPP model for naval construction, with better Infrastructure and technology through the establishment of a new high capacity ‘green field’ Shipyards, Mr. Mehta concluded.
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