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Submarine INS Sindhukirti stuck in refit for 8 years
Rajat Pandit, TNN | Mar 7, 2014NEW DELHI: Here's another shocker: Diesel-electric submarine INS Sindhukirti has been stuck in a refit at an Indian shipyard for the last eight years. Despite the Navy screaming blue murder over its aging and depleting underwater combat arm, there seems no end in sight for this gross project mismanagement.
Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), which was transferred from the shipping ministry to the defence ministry in 2009-2010, has repeatedly failed to adhere to delivery deadlines of INS Sindhukirti. "There have been many review meetings but MoD has failed to keep things under control. HSL has now once again promised to deliver the submarine by March 2015," said a source.
The "medium-refit" of the 24-year-old INS Sindhukirti, a Kilo-class submarine like the mishap-hit INS Sindhurakshak and INS Sindhuratna, began at HSL in Vizag way back in June 2006 to repair and modernize its hull, cables, machinery, sonar and missile equipment with the help of Russian experts.
The refit was to be completed in three years but it may actually take a decade now. "If the submarine had been sent abroad for a refit, it would have cost around Rs 900 crore, without the huge time and cost overruns witnessed now," said the source.
The Navy, meanwhile, is down to just nine operational conventional submarines due to political apathy, bureaucratic bottle-necks as well as lack of timely decision-making and proper infrastructure at shipyards and dockyards.
Not a single new submarine of the 24 conventional "boats" envisaged under the 30-year submarine-building plan, approved by the CCS in July 1999, has been inducted till now. India, in fact, is struggling to retain its underwater combat edge against Pakistan, which has eight submarines, and is falling further behind China which has around 50.
When INS Sindhurakshak sank due to internal explosions, killing three officers and 15 sailors at the Mumbai naval dockyard last August, it left the Navy with just nine Russian Kilo-class and four German HDW submarines.
Admiral D K Joshi resigned as Navy chief on February 26 after the mishap on board INS Sindhuratna, which killed two officers and left several injured. With INS Sindhuratna headed for repairs, two other submarines are also operationally unavailable due to ongoing refits.
The "prescribed" or design life of a submarine is 25 to 30 years. But, as earlier reported by TOI, almost all the 13 Indian diesel-electric submarines are over 20 years old. Eight of them are over 25 years old. With advancing age, the chances of material failure or system malfunctions on submarines goes up drastically.
Under the submarine-building plan, 12 new submarines were to be inducted by 2012, with another 12 by 2030. But only the first six have been ordered till now, with the project itself running four years behind schedule. The first of these six French-origin Scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon Docks at a cost over Rs 23,000 crore, will be ready only by November 2016. The rest will follow, hopefully one every eight months.
The global tender for construction of the next six submarines is yet to be even floated despite being granted "acceptance of necessity'' in November 2007. It will take at least three years to select the foreign collaborator and another eight years after that for the first submarine to roll out. The Navy does have the right to scream blue murder.
Submarine INS Sindhukirti stuck in refit for 8 years - The Times of India
