Moscow: On the heels of heavy slippage in
the delivery of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, another
Russian defence shipyard is seeking USD 60 million loan to
complete the construction of three stealth frigates for the
Indian Navy.
Yantar defence shipyard, which has got follow-up orders
from India for building three more stealth class frigates, has
asked Russian national development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB)
for a USD 60 million loan to complete the project.
The USD 60 million loan comes on top of USD 110 million
the shipyard has already availed of "due to financial
constraints," shipyard director Igor Orlov was quoted as
saying by government-run RIA Novosti.
India has upfront paid USD 1.6 billion to the shipyard
to build three more 11356 tonnes Krivak IV class guided
missile stealth frigates in July 2006.
The official blamed fluctuations in the
rouble-to-dollar exchange rate for the financial woes of the
defence enterprise situated in Russia`s Baltic exclave of
Kaliningrad.
The delivery of the carrier Gorshkov has already been
delayed to 2012 though India had provided `sufficient and
timely` project financing.
The first of the new stealth frigates would be launched
this year, the second, in the first quarter of 2010, and the
third shortly after that.
Earlier Russia had built and delivered three Krivak
class frigates - INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar - to
India.
The warships were built at Baltiisky Zavod shipyard in
St Petersburg in 2004 and were delivered in 2004, running a
delay of two years.
Bureau Report
