Article Posted on : - Sep 16, 2010

INS Vikramaditya. A file photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier bought from Russia finally cost India $2.33 billion, out of which $29 million was paid toward services rendered by Indian specialists and another $85 million for repair technical documentation.

India had early this year agreed to pay $2.33 billion, over three times the $974 million it had signed a contract for the 45000-tonne warship in 2004, after a three-year negotiation.

"The $29 million was paid for stationing 40-odd Indian Navy personnel in Russia for over five years since 2004 to assist, monitor and work on the repair and re-equipping of Gorshkov," a Navy officer said here Wednesday.

"The $85 million for repair technical documentation was for buying all detailed charts, diagrams and instructions for the machinery and equipment that are on-board Gorshkov," the officer said.

The technical documentation was bought as a complete set right away because Gorshkov, rechristened INS Vikramaditya would be the only warship of its class that India was buying from Russia. Its delivery is scheduled for end of 2012.

"With these documents, India can carry on with repair and maintenance of the warship within India independently without having to send the aircraft carrier back to Russia, as we do in the case of Kilo class submarines," he said.

The documentation cost would be much lower than the maintenance and repair cost of the warship if it had to go to Russia for the purpose, leave alone the cost of sailing there and returning to India, he added.

India has also decided to create a repair infrastructure for Gorshkov for which Russia would provide technical documentation, toward which $8 million was spent by the Navy, apart from $78 million for supply of equipment for the same excluding the weapon repair facilities.

Of the $2.33 billion that was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security this year, a total of $1.783 billion go toward repair and re-equipping of the aircraft carrier, including $409 million for ship trials.

Of this, the original works that India had envisaged for the warship cost $588 million and another $785 million went toward additional works that Navy had asked the Sevmash Russian shipyard to carry out on Gorshkov, according to cost figures.

India also paid $276 million to Russia for base and depot and toward long-term exploitation of spares for the warship.

The warship's Indian crew training cost $63.4 million and training of Indian repair specialist $4.48 million.

Another $1 billion went toward warship's combat exploitation documentation, the officer added.