France Backs Out Of P-75I Submarine Project Day Ahead Of PM Modi's Visit

The French Defense Navy Group has stated that it cannot fulfill the requirements of the Request for Proposal (RFP) and therefore will not be involved in the project.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron (Source: AFP)

New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to France, the major Defense Navy group on Tuesday has announced that it will not be able to be a part of India's P-75I project.

The French Defense Navy Group has told that it cannot participate in the P-75 India project. Under this project, six conventional submarines were to be built in India for the Indian Navy.

It is also one of the five international groups shortlisted for this 43,000 crore rupees project. The group has stated that it cannot fulfill the requirements of the Request for Proposal (RFP) and therefore will not be involved in the project.

In a statement on Tuesday, Laurent Videau, Country and Managing Director, Naval Group India, said, "Due to certain conditions in the RFP, the two strategic partners could not forward the request to us and few other FOEMs (foreign original equipment manufacturers) and thus we have not been able to place an official bid for the project."

The P-75I is the second project to build submarines in India. Naval Group has completed the construction of six Kalvari class (Scorpene class) conventional submarines under the P-75 project in partnership with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilding Limited (MDL) in India.

The P-75 project was signed in the year 2005 and at that time the name of this naval group was DCNS. Under this project, four of the six submarines have already been deployed in the Navy. The construction of the sixth submarine began last month and was to be commissioned by the end of next year.

"However, the present RFP requires that the fuel cell AIP (air independent propulsion) be sea proven, which is not the case for us yet since the French Navy does not use such propulsion system," he said.

"Our focus and efforts are towards continuation of our collaboration with Indian industry in realising the vision of Government of India by supporting Indian Navy for other future developments and projects (maintenance, high tech tools, indigenous AIP, incremental improvements in Scorpene designed submarine, heavy weight torpedoes, larger ships etc)," he mentioned.