India pays USD 102 million to speed up refit of Gorshkov

Vinay Shukla

Moscow, Sept 8 (PTI) India has paid another staggering
USD 102 million to Russia, to speed up refit work on the
aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, pending a final agreement
on a huge price hike of almost USD 2 billion demanded by
Moscow.

"The advance payment of USD 102 million has given a
fillip to repairs and refit works. The workforce would be
increased to 2500 for work in two shifts," spokesperson of the
Sevmash shipyard Anastasia Nikitinskaya said as Russian
officials committed that they would meet the 2012 delivery
deadline.

The increasing delay in the delivery of the warship
has been described by President Dmitry Medvedev as the 'sole
irritant' in Indo-Russian relations.

The issue came up in the delegation level talks
between President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and her Soviet
counterpart on September 3, during her first state visit to
the country.

Director General of Severodvinsk-based Sevmash
shipyard Nikolai Kalistratov along with his Chief Engineer was
also present at the talks held at Kremlin.

Under the initial USD 1.5 billion contract signed in
New Delhi in January 2004, Russia was to deliver retrofitted
aircraft carrier in August 2008. PTI VS