New
Delhi, October 10: The delivery date of floating deck cruiser Admiral
Gorshkov slipped by a year, Russia made it official on Wednesday, even
as India remained non-committal on imposing a financial penalty on the
Russian shipyard as it failed to honour the contract that had finalized
December 4, 2012 as the delivery date.
Even
as the biggest irritant in the Indo-Russian defence trade – often
termed as the “White Elephant” indicating the steep cost escalation of
the warships - was far from being removed, both countries firmed up
contracts for another 42 Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jets and 59
helicopters.
According to sources,
India conveyed its “serious concerns” about the delay of Gorhskov to be
rechristened as INS Vikramaditya to visiting Russian Defence Minister
Anatoly Serdyukov during the 12th India-Russia Inter-Governmental
Commission on Military Technical Cooperation Russia. However, Moscow
washed its hands off the delay caused in the project saying it cannot be
held responsible for the trial malfunction.
Addressing
a joint press conference, Russian Defence Minister Serdyukov said: “The
ship encountered big malfunction with the main power plant and the
boiler. Right now the ship is relocated to the factory.” The Russian
technicians are examining the cause of the malfunction and the 44,570
tonnes Kiev class aircraft carrier at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk
will only begin its trial in April 2013.
The
Gorshkov programme had suffered a setback when after 90 days of sailing
in the Barent Sea; seven of the eight boilers of the warship did not
function at its maximum power limit. Sources indicate that the Russian
shipyard might escalate the cost for the refurbishment of the warship as
the Russians are claiming that
it was the Indian Navy that insisted on bricks insulation for the
boilers rather than the traditional asbestos coating and would therefore
claim more in the name of dry dock maintenance.
“We
have handed over the revised time overhaul and transfer schedule to the
Indian side and we believe that transfer of the ship will take place in
the 4th quarter of the 2013,” Serdykov added.
While
Indian Defence Minister AK Antony insisted that the early delivery of
the aircraft carrier was the primary concern of New Delhi, on the issue
of imposing penalty on Sevmash shipyard for another delay in the project
that has been marred by delays and price escalation saying: “This is
not the time to discuss it.” The contract provides for levying a penalty
ranging from .5 to 5 percent of the cost of the warship depending on
the delay in the delivery.
The
acquisition of Admiral Gorshkov has been full of the price escalation
saga. Offered as a gift to the Indian Navy in the beginning, the
Russians had used the warship to arm-twist the Indian government to
cough up more money that was used to bail out the cash-strapped Sevmash
shipyard. The soviet-vintage aircraft carrier was built under 1143.4
class aircraft carrier project and these carriers have a history of
boiler failures during their service lives. The warship was launched
into the sea in 1982 and commissioned into the Soviet navy in 1987.
Gorshkov had to be docked in 1994 after a boiler room explosion in 1994.
It returned to services in 1995 for a brief time and was finally put up
for sale in 1996.
India and
Russia signed the contract in 2004 for a package deal of $1.5 billion
that included $974 million for its refit and the rest for the 16 MiG-29 K
fighter jets. The initial delivery date was in 2008.
However
project hit the headlines in 2007 when Russia said that it will not be
able to meet its initial deadline of 2008 and pushed it back to 2010 and
demanded upped the price to $2.9 billion. After years of strenuous
price re-negotiations the deal was re-inked at $2.33 billion in 2010 and
December 2012 was fixed as the delivery time.
