Indian shipyard Larsen & Toubro Ltd has decided to withdraw from the race for the construction of Gail India Ltd's long-awaited LNG carriers.

According to local media, the reason behind backing down is a clause in the recently published tender that requires shipyards to hold equity stake of as much as 13% in the LNG carriers that are to be built locally.

"We are not participating in the tender because of the stipulation put by GAIL for winning shipyards to take equity stake in the LNG tankers," an anonymous L&T executive familiar with the matter is quoted by Live Mint as saying.