An undated picture of the M72 minesweeper of the Indian Navy.
INS Alleppey, one of the seven mine sweepers of the Indian Navy, will be decommissioned this year, leaving 14 ports - of which 12 are identified as key - to be covered by just six ships.
Mine sweepers perform the critical job of keeping shipping lines and ports open by detecting and defusing mines planted by the enemy by sea or air. Ideally, the Navy needs at least two mine sweepers per port. For 14 ports, it needs 28 such ships.
The Indian Navy had acquired 12 mine sweeper vessels from Russia between 1978 and 1988. Of these, four have been decommissioned. INS Alleppey, a Russian Natya Class Mine Sweeper, has been in use since 1980.
No mine sweeper vessel has been acquired since 1988.
The UPA government had tried to procure Mine Counter Measure Vehicles (MCMV), which was abandoned after the lowest bidder - M/s Kanganam Corporation, a South Korean company -- was accused of wrongdoing.
In 2008, Kangnam had made a bid better than Italy's Intermarine Shipyard. The price-negotiations were concluded by 2011. Intermarine, however, alleged lack of transparency and violations of procedure and moved the Central Vigilance Commission.
Subsequently, BJP's Radha Mohan Singh, now the agriculture minister in PM Modi's cabinet, wrote to then defence minister AK Antony, alleging the South Korean company had hired defence agents, violating the integrity clause.
An internal inquiry established deviations in procedure.
Now, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has asked the defence public sector unit, Goa Shipyard Limited, or GSL, to build mine sweepers in India. The GSL will build 12 such ships at an estimated cost of Rs 32,000 crore.
But till then, the Navy is left with a gap in its mine sweeping capabilities.
Currently, it is using "clip-on" mine sweeping suits mounted on Off-shore Patrol Vessels. "There are about a dozen such suits available with us," a senior Navy officer told NDTV.