The Government has issued guidelines for evaluating and awarding tenders for shipbuilding, dry-docking and ship repair works for Government departments or agencies including Public Sector Undertakings. As a step towards supporting Indian shipbuilding and ship-repair industry, the Union Cabinet had, on December 9, 2015, approved the criteria for evaluating and awarding tenders for shipbuilding and ship repair works floated by Government departments or agencies including Public Sector Undertakings. It was directed that government departments or agencies including PSUs procuring any type of vessels for governmental purposes or for their own use or requiring ship repair shall henceforth, till 2025, grant “Right of first refusal” to Indian shipyards to enable them to match the lowest rate offered by the foreign bidder. Further from 2025 onwards, only Indian-built vessels shall be procured by such departments and agencies for governmental purposes or for own purposes. Such departments and agencies have to undertake bulk tendering for their entire vessel related requirements with deliveries starting from 2017-2018. This is in line with international practice where many countries, in order to provide dedicated order-book support to domestic shipyards, place their ship-acquisition, repair or chartering requirements on their shipyards.

Further, it was also decided that prior experience in building or repairing a specific type or size of vessel shall not be a criterion for determining the eligibility of Indian shipyards provided the shipyards possess adequate capability.

Related Post