Defence minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurate the submarine assembly workshop in Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL). At present, MDL is building six Scorpene class of submarines for the Indian Navy, with around 35% of indigenisation. The minister also emphasised that the defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) should undertake orders to export ships by having a dedicated “export cell”.

The newly built Submarine Marine Assembly Workshop is a pre-engineered building structure to handle construction of multiple submarines simultaneously. Built at a cost of Rs153 crore, it will make it possible to assemble five submarines in the workshop at the same time.

The workshop has features such as rain water harvesting, sewage treatment plan, grey water treatment plant, oily water separator plant for treatment of sewage, grey water and oily water respectively, with zero discharge into the municipal drains.

The current construction of Scorpene class submarines is taking place at its East Yard in collaboration with DCNS of France. Kalvari, the first submarine of this class, is expected to join the Indian Navy later in the year.