Well L&T set up a JV for these turbines in Hajira (near Surat) and it seems to be an okay
source, being that it uses Mitsubishi technology and nothing indigenous developed in India. They are capable of building turbines up to 5000/6000 MW level. Also because the Chinese are even starting to
source from them. If the Russians will stand behind L&T, it is a low-cost source for OEM capital machinery we can't really ignore. The benefit will be to us and our industry in terms of cost. But we should have had a clause in the contract where we'd have approval rights for any subcontractors which is a lesson for future overseas contracts. I don't think our govt. folks,
1. Either went that far into evaluating the contract clauses properly, or
2. Russians didn't agree with this clause of us choosing third-party subcontractors on a fixed price contract.
IMHO I'd be much happier if we sourced from Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia or even Pakistan, but the last low-cost option simply did not exist.
It is my belief that we should prefer to source from countries,
a) who see eye-to-eye with us on political interests
b) who are friendly Islamic second world countries, like Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia