Garden Reach, Navy to ink MoU for warships

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) will soon be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Navy for a warships project, an official said here Friday.

"These off-shore patrol vessels made by GRSE for the Navy will tremendously increase business opportunities in the eastern region, especially in West Bengal. GRSE will require more vendors and industry partners to meet the requirements," said GRSE Chairman and Managing Director Rear Admiral (Retd) A.K. Verma.

Participating in a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised conference on vendor meet on defence, Verma also said negotiations with the Philippines government for a big project are on.

"I hope it will fructify very soon," said Verma, adding GRSE's turnover would jump to "Rs.3,000 crore in the next five years".

Verma said GRSE is also negotiating with a few other countries.

"But this is not going to be smooth sailing because we are competing with some formidable European countries. We must work hard to keep our bidding low," he said.

Rear Admiral Sekhar Mittal, Additional DGQA, Directorate of Quality Assurance (Naval), Indian Navy, said: "India's attractiveness as a potential defence production hub is rising steadily, for both domestic and global players.

"This is a huge opportunity for big players as well as micro small and medium enterprises. Big investors from across the world are increasingly turning their focus on India," said Mittal.