Panaji: Even as Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) goes ahead with infrastructure augmentation for the prestigious Rs 32,000 cr mine counter measure vessel (MCMV) project, long drawn negotiations with South Korean firm, Kangnam Corp have failed to fructify, senior Indian Navy officials have said. Discussions on the transfer of technology have yet to arrive at any conclusions, but GSL remains confident that construction of the 12 minesweepers would start by mid-2018."Discussions with Kangnam are in the final stages. Currently, we have signed about Rs 700 crores worth of contracts in the last three months and the balance contracts are in final stages," chairman and managing director of GSL, Shekhar Mital said.GSL is simultaneously working on infrastructure augmentation for an ambitious project to build mine counter measure vessels indigenously and with the phase 3A of the expansion complete, it will now go in for phase 3B, and phase 4 of the expansion.A senior naval official who is privy to the Indian Navy's procurement programme said, "For the last two years we have been hearing of the MCMV coming to Goa. But ToT (transfer of technology) is still not done. Negotiations are still going on but tough negotiations are expected," the navy officer said.The Vasco-based defence public sector unit has gone ahead and floated the tender for the purchase of the weapons and sensor suite.

Stay updated with all the Latest Goa headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.