New Delhi, April 9: India expects to conclude price negotiation with Russia for the Four Talwar case stealth frigates on the sidelines of DefExpo 2018. India is hoping to close the deal with Russia before the India-Russia annual summit which is to be held later this year. These four stealth frigates are classified a project 11356. The two frigates will be manufactured in Russia while the two remaining guided – missile stealth frigates will be manufactured at Goa Shipping limited (GSL) in collaboration with Russia. The construction is likely to begin in 2020-2021.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) on the sidelines of BRICS Summit held in 2016. During defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Moscow visit, a meeting of Price Negotiation Committee (PNC) was held. GSL chairman and managing director Shekhar Mital said, “The Price Negotiation Committee for the project is in advanced stage of conclusion and preparatory activities are in full swing to commence construction by 2020-21. A PNC meeting is scheduled at Chennai during the DefExpo itself, and we hope to arrive at a decision,” Reported The Times of India.

Officials from Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad had visited Vasco based shipyard to evaluate facilities present there for the manufacturing of the frigates. After getting approval from Russia India chose GSL for the project. The Indian navy has six Russian built stealth frigates – INS Talwar, INS Trishul, INS Tabar, INS Teg, INS Tarkash and INS Trikhand.

As reported by The Time of India, Mittal said, “GSL has taken lot of initiatives for ‘Make in India’ and is always on the lookout to get most advanced and niche shipbuilding technology to India through collaboration or transfer of technology.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 09, 2018 04:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).