Construction of the submarines would simultaneously begin in Pakistan and China.
Published: Thu 8 Oct 2015, 12:00 AM
Updated: Thu 8 Oct 2015, 11:07 AM
Islamabad: China will build in Karachi four of eight submarines that it is selling to Pakistan, Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain has said.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Defence Export Promotion Organisation (DEPO) Display Centre here, the minister said that the deal for the acquisition of submarines from China had been finalised and four of them would be built in Karachi.
He further said that construction of the submarines would simultaneously begin in Pakistan and China. China, he said, would transfer the technology to Pakistan for submarine construction.
The implementation of the agreement would augment the existing submarine related capacity.
One of the three Agosta 90-B submarines in Navy's fleet - PNS Hamza commissioned in 2008 - was assembled at the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works. The other two Agosta 90-B submarines - PNS Khalid and PNS Saad - were also indigenously overhauled and retrofitted with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems in 2011.
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