On the heels of heavy slippage in the delivery of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, another Russian defence shipyard is seeking $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 $60 million loan to complete the project.
The $60 million loan comes on top of $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 $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.
More From This Section
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.