Moscow: A Russian nuclear submarine, in which 20 people were accidentally killed during a sea trial in 2008, will be leased to India in November, a Russian defence industry source said Tuesday.

The delivery will make India only the sixth to operate nuclear-powered submarines after France, China, Russia, Britain and the US. The Nerpa was to have been leased in 2008 but the transfer was put on hold after a fatal mishap three years ago, when a freon gas fire suppressant system was accidentally set off. The $650 million lease contract was signed in 2004.

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The source said all the defects "will have been eliminated before November, after which the Nerpa will be transferred to Delhi".

In late September, a jury dropped negligence charges against the Nerpa`s captain Dmitry Lavrentyev and engineer Dmitry Grobov. They were charged with professional negligence resulting in death or injury for allegedly setting off the sub`s fire safety system "without authorization and for no reason". The Nerpa had 208 people aboard.

Seventeen of the dead were civilians, killed when fire-suppressant freon gas was released during sea trials in the Sea of Japan in November 2008.

Another 21 people were injured, in Russia`s worst naval accident since the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000.
IANS