Navy eyes new warships worth Rs 45,000 crore by year-end

The Navy finds itself constrained by the lowest budgetary allocation since 2011-12

About two-and-a-half years have elapsed since the navy signed a contract for new warships — a Rs 45,381-crore deal in 2015 with Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai (MDL), and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata (GRSE), for seven stealth frigates under Project 17A. 

With numerous other warship purchases stuck in the defence ministry’s famously clogged procurement pipeline, the navy has surrendered Rs 15,041 crore during the past five years from its budgetary allocation for new warships. 

In four of the past five financial years (see Table 1), the navy has surrendered thousands of crores of unspent money. It returned Rs 2,543