Govt blames Russia for increase in Navy destroyer cost
Inflation has hit the navy hard, and the government says the Russians are partly to blame. The cost of building next generation naval warships at local shipyards has skyrocketed.
The three Kolkata-class destroyers under project 15 A were estimated to cost Rs.16,000 crore, but has gone up by 225 per cent.
Another flagship programme to construct state-of-the-art stealth frigates, known as Project 17, has overshot its estimate of Rs.8,000 crore by 260 per cent.
Similarly, Kamorta-class corvettes under project 28, estimated to cost Rs.8,000, will now be 157 per cent dearer. The blame for the escalation in the cost of the Kolkata-class destroyers has been put on delay in the supply of warship building quality steel by Russia.
The subsequent finalisation of the cost of weapon and sensors to be put on the warships added to the final price tag. The government has presented a detailed response in Parliament on the cost escalation that is bleeding the exchequer.
The cost of the Shivalik-class stealth frigate, the most modern ship to be produced in India till date, has also gone up because of the delay in getting steel from Russia. The problem was further compounded by the fact that its propulsion equipment was not finalised in time as India was for the first time using a combination of diesel and gas arrangements.
The corvette project was delayed because the navy had initially planned to use high tensile strength steel but its import was found to be expensive. Later on, locally developed steel was used.
Even in this case, the suitable propulsion system was not finalised because of the stealth features of the ship.
All the three projects are crucial to the navy's fleet planning. They are the most modern ships to be produced in the country. While one of the three Shivalikclass ships has been commissioned, defence minister A. K. Antony will induct the second one - INS Satpura - later this month in Mumbai.
This is the first time India has ventured into developing stealth warships in local shipyards. These are equipped with an array of weapons and sensors matching requirements of modern war fighting capabilities.
