Russia, the manufacturer of Kilo-class submarines of Indian Navy, has washed its hands off the latest disaster of destruction of one of Indian Navys submarines built and overhauled by it. Russian deputy prime minister has blamed that violation of safety regulations could be the most likely cause of the explosions on submarine INS Sindhurakshak because of which it sank. According to The Times of India, Dmitry Rogozin has said India had raised no questions over the technical aspects of the submarine built and recently overhauled by Russia.
This has put a big question mark on Indias capacity to operate much bigger platform, the nuclear submarine it has recently put for sea trials after activating its nuclear powered engine. The Arihant class is a class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines being built for the Indian Navy. INS Arihant is the lead vessel. Four vessels are being built and are expected to be in commission by 2023. The Arihant-class vessels are India's first indigenously designed and built nuclear submarine. They were developed under the US$2.9 billion Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines. INS Arihant is set to be the first ballistic missile submarine to have been built outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
The nuclear watchdog, IAEA should be concerned about the quality of safety standards of Indian Navy while dealing with nuclear submarine and put it on monitoring and surveillance.
The Russian deputy PM was visibly upset on the incident. He said the blast had occurred in the section where storage batteries were being charged. This is the most dangerous work, which is connected with safety measures rather than with the producers of this equipment.
The diesel-electric submarine was built in 1997 by the Admiralteiskie Verfi shipyard in St. Petersburg. It recently underwent interim overhaul and modernization at the Russian Severodvinsk-based Zvezdochka shipyard, and arrived at the Indian port of Mumbai on April 29.
Safety rules' violation puts question marks on India's capacity to operate nuclear submarines
