'Rs.3 crore bond from Korean defence firm confiscated'

After scrapping the deal for South Korean minesweeper warships, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar Sunday said that his ministry has confiscated the Rs.3 crore integrity bond which was promised at the time of an agreement.

"Because agents were named, the tender has been called off. The Rs.3 crore given by the company by way of integrity bond has been confiscated," Parrikar told reporters here Sunday.

South Korea-based firm Kangnam Corporation signed a deal with the defence ministry to sell two mine counter-measures vessels (MCMWs) for Rs.2,700 crore and sharing technology with the Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), a public sector shipyard a couple of years back.

The scrapping of the deal, over the issues of agents used by the company to negotiate the deal, was the first major decision take by Parrikar, after he was elevated as the defence minister earlier this month.

Parrikar said the defence ministry was considering that the GSL should be allowed to construct the MSMWs on its own, while at the most sourcing the required technology internationally.

"In principle, what we have worked out is that all the eight minesweepers should be given to the GSL to be built. That is the line of thinking," Parrikar said.

"We do not have the technology to go completely indigenous. Collaboration will be restricted only to hi-tech items and technology transfer," he said.