Two submarines of the Indian Navy suffered minor damages in a collision at a jetty in the Mumbai harbour, when one vessel was attempting parallel berthing with the other.
There was no injury and officers at the headquarters in New Delhi termed the incident as a minor one.
“It is a minor incident that took place 10 days ago. A submarine was attempting a parallel berthing alongside another, which is a routine practice,” a Naval officer said.
Since there was no damage to any equipment or weapon system, the Navy said a minor repair to the submarine would be carried out locally.
Though the Navy refused to officially respond to queries on the incident, officers said such minor incidents did take place regularly when attempting parallel berthing.
Naval sources said the submarines were of Russian-origin Kilo class and one of those had recently come back from Russia after a refit.
At present, the Navy has 16 submarines in its fleet. Of these, 10 are Kilo class submarines bought from Russia, four HDW types and two Foxtrot class.
One of the Foxtrot class submarines is due to be decommissioned from the Navy this month.
The Navy plans to induct six more submarines into its fleet in the next five years under the Scorpene project currently under way in Mazgaon Docks, a defence public sector undertaking, in Mumbai.
