A full sized CATOBAR carrier is unavoidable if you want to be a serious naval power. More than the construction of the ship though, I'm concerned about the aircraft procurement. We've only managed to get 36 new fighters for the Air Force itself in the past 10 years. The cost snd procurement time for 57 modern western fighters for the navy will not be pretty. And this is when most countries with carriers are already moving towards 5th gen jets.
Secondly, I'm not seeing any plans for rapid expansion of the destroyer and submarine fleets, without which you cannot have enough ships for 3 carrier battle groups, plus enough ships for other duties. Even if 1 carrier is always in maintenance, the present number of destroyers including planned Vishakapatnam is not enough. And then there are the replenishment ships like tankers, which we will also need to procure more of. We will enter a Royal Navy situation where they bought 2 carriers but don't have enough ships for 2 CBG's, nor enough planes for the 2 carriers.
There are many elements in the navy which need to come together before a 3rd carrier makes sense, and I'm not seeing these other elements going in a satisfactory direction or speed.
Not just 36 jet!!
In last 10 year we have added 36 rafale + 32 lca Tejas + 40-50 Sukhoi 30mki ( which we built from 2012 onwards). So we have added atleast 100 new jets in 10 yrs.
This decade should be much better given 73 mk1a and 18 twin seat Tejas are already ordered.
Our naval build-up is in much better shape though . We have screwed up with ssk procurement but atleast SSN are approved.
Surface ship situation is much better with 11 frigates and 4 destroyers under-construction and almost 30 Corvettes in construction/ planning . ( 16 asw scw , 8 NGC + 6 ngmv).
New about repeating p17a order seems very encouraging for future career battle groups.
But they need to speed up ssk procurement fast. We need atleast 6 more asap. Not ordering 3 more scorpion was a mistake.
Even middling like turkey is planning indegenous submarine we should make our Design based on Scorpion add drdo aip , lithium ion batteries and build them in numbers.
Since one Carrier will probably remain in refit / maintenance at a time you will need two carrier battle groups deployed not 3. ( It takes 2 years plus to refit ).
Besides third carrier is a decade away the least . By then we shall have 3SSN in water to add to Carrier group .