Navy chalks out Rs 15,000 cr submarine plan

The Navy plans to spend Rs 15,000 crore over the next 30 years on an indigenous submarine building programme. After a gap of 15 years, the Union government has accorded approval for restarting submarine construction in the country.

The Navy has, accordingly, chalked out  a 30-year programme, which will see the construction to start on the first submarine in the next couple of months at the Mazagon Docks in Mumbai.

According to the plan, the first submarine will be ready in 7-8 years and after that one new submarine will join the Navy every year. This was stated by Admiral Arun Prakash, Chief of the Naval Staff, here yesterday.

"The Navy will spend around Rs 15,000 crore on this project," the Navy chief  said. "There is no proposal for construction of nuclear submarines in the country," he added.

In addition to this, the Navy has also chalked out a massive warship acquisition plan, which could see it acquire around 80 warships over the next 10 years.

"Our shipyards have the capabilities to build these warships and the shipyards only would get these construction orders," the Navy chief announced.

At present, 19 warships are under construction at different shipyards, he added.

The prestigious Air Defence Ship (ADS) project would be started at the Cochin Shipyard in the next few months and the ship would be inducted in the Navy in 7-8 years from now, he disclosed.

Another Air Defence Ship, the Admiral Gorshkov, which was purchased from Russia, would join the Navy in the next 50 months, he said.

"The Navy has been giving top priority to indigenisation and in the future most of the naval requirements will be produced in the country only," he said. "In the Defence Budget, the Navy has got 17 per cent share and we expect it to touch 20 per cent in the near future," the Admiral said.

Admiral Arun Prakash was in Visakhapatnam to visit the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command.