Brushing aside the announcement made by Pipavav Shipyard that it had been chosen by Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) as a joint venture partner, Bharati Shipyard has written to MDL's Chairman and Managing Director asking for the last date for submission of its detailed plan for formation of a joint venture as sought by the public sector undertaking on August 25.

Mazagon Dock floated an expression of interest this March regarding synergy in the construction of warships to reduce the build time. After getting the responses, MDL shortlisted L&T, ABG, Bharati and Pipavav.

However, Bharati acknowledged that media reports on September 10 said that Pipavav Shipyard had been picked as a joint venture partner by Mazagon Dock.

“Immediately after the presentations on the 23 August, 2011, we were requested vide letter DR/.119/Admin dated 25 August, 2011, to provide further details and terms of reference for the formation of the joint venture. Subsequently, there were media reports on September 10 that MDL had already selected the joint venture model of partnership and Pipavav Shipyard as one of their partner. We would, therefore, be grateful if you could kindly clarify the above and by which date we, ie. Bharati, should submit our proposal for the joint venture,” the communication from Mr Partho Burmon Roy, Director, Bharati Shipyard, to Mazagon Dock, said.

Bharati Shipyard outlined the process before the announcement of the deal, while stating that it wanted to submit its detailed plan.

Larsen &Toubro and ABG shipyard have already written to the Mazagon Dock and the Defence Ministry communicating their disappointment over the way the public sector undertaking had finalised the deal with Pipavav shipyard, alleging non-transparency in the selection process and also non-disclosure of the evaluation criteria.

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