INS Vikrant is 12 years late and 13 times the budgeted cost

A saga of shortfalls and ineptitude - in planning, obtaining sanctions, designing, construction and financing - has caused a delay of 12 years in building and shot up its cost 13 times

Amidst media fanfare, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-1), the 40,000-tonne INS Vikrant, went out last week for its first sea trial.
 
“Trials progressed as planned and system parameters proved satisfactory,” stated the navy on INS Vikrant’s return to Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), where it was built.
 
Alongside the jubilation, however, lies a saga of shortfalls and ineptitude — in planning, obtaining sanctions, designing, construction and financing — that has caused a delay of 12 ye­ars in building the aircraft carrier and shot up its cost 13 times.
 
Furthermore, the MiG29K and MiG29KUB, the carrier’s primary fighters,