Parrikar to attend official floating out of 1st Scorpene submarine

Mumbai, April 5: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will be present in Mumbai tomorrow (April 6) for the official ‘floating out' of the first Project-75 (Scorpene) submarine on pontoon.

Naval sources told OneIndia that the event will be held at Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) during Parrikar's visit to its facilities.

"This is part of Raksha Mantri's review programme. He will be briefed by the naval officers of Western Naval Command (WNC) on the status of various ongoing projects at MDL," a defence official said.

Admiral R K Dhowan, Chief of Naval Staff, will be leading a high-level naval delegation on the occasion. Vice Admiral Surinder Pal Singh Cheema had recently taken over the reins of WNC as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C).

In addition to reviewing the progress of the Project 75, Parrikar is also expected to get an update on the progress of P-15 B class stealth destroyers being built at MDL.

As reported in these columns earlier, six Scorpene-class submarines are currently being built at BDL in collaboration with DCNS, a French company. As per the modified schedules, the first home-grown Scorpene submarine is scheduled to join the Indian naval ranks next year. This after a delay of over was four years.

Interestingly, the then defence minister Arun Jaitley had reviewed Project 75 in August 2014, three months after he took charge.

During his visit, Jaitley had inaugurated the Mazdock Modernisation Project (MMP), which was aimed at propelling the ship-building capabilities.

Oneindia News