Defence ministry to help domestic shipbuilders

In a bid to help the domestic private shipbuilding companies, a memorandum of understanding between the defence ministry and the ministry of shipping is likely to be signed in the next three to four weeks, whereby the stressed private shipbuilding firms will be able to pick up orders from the defence ministry, which otherwise is not allowed as per policy.

"According to the policy, defence ministry cannot give orders to shipbuilding companies that are under financial stress. Due to this, we (the ministries of defence and shipping) have decided to experiment in such a manner that the shipping ministry becomes the cushion and we send orders via this ministry," said Manohar Parrikar, Union minister of defence at the Maritime India Summit held on Wednesday.