Goa Chief Minister and former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said termination of contract with a Korean company for providing technology for minesweeper vessels for the Navy would not delay the project, as some other countries too have the technology.
The defence ministry awarded the contract for building Mines Counter Measure Vessels (MCMV) to Goa Shipyard Ltd, a defence PSU, for Rs 32,000 crore when Parrikar was heading the ministry.
"The contract with a Korean company for transfer of technology to construct these vessels was terminated recently as terms and conditionscould not be agreed upon for one or two basic points which were not within the parametrs of tender," said Parrikar.
Initially only the Korean company had expressed interest in technology transfer, he said, adding "it is not necessary that we should go for Korean technology only".
"The technology is available with Italian, Korean and also with Russians," he said, adding that the cancellation of contract will not delay the project, but the defence ministry will have to speed up the exercise to finalise the new technology partner.
Parrikar was speaking to reporters after laying the foundation stone for the MCMV Command, Control and Design building in the GSL complex at Vasco, 40 km from here.
GSL chairman and managing director Rear Admiral Shekhar Mittal said the foundation stone ceremony should put to rest all speculation about 'closure' of MCMV project.
"Let me reiterate with all power at my command that Ministry of Defence is all committed to implement MCMV project thought GSL at the earliest," he said.
"MCMV project is the largest defence project to be executed by the GSL," he said.
He recalled that private sector shipyards were lobbying hard to win the contract, and "the future (of GSL) for next ten years has been secured" thanks to Parrikar.
The project will also give a boost to the state's economy, he said.
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