Sevmash shipyard, which is refurbishing the Gorshkov aircraft carrier, has put additional workers on the warship to increase the pace of work and has assured that sea trials would begin in 2011 to pave way for its induction into the Indian Navy the next year.

However, it has cautioned that the pace of work may decline if India does not cough up additional funds as an “advance payment” to refurbish the warship soon.

“But (to ensure) that this pace does not decline, we urgently need additional funding. We did not receive funds (for the project) from January 2007 and are now negotiating for an advance payment from the Indian side. As a rule, this is 20 per cent of the anticipated cost of the work,” Sevmash shipyard director general Nikolay Kalistratov said.

Moscow had earlier stunned Delhi by asking for an additional $1.2 billion, almost doubling the initial cost, to complete the carrier’s refit. While a decision on the final escalation has not been taken, it is expected to be between $600-800 million.

The shipyard issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the number of workers on the project has been increased from 1,200 to 1,500.

Putting pressure on India to pay up the additional funds soon, Kalistratov has cautioned that the pace of work may decline again if money is not received on time. This comes after India asked Russia to make an advance payment of $250 million to the shipyard that would be later adjusted in the final price settlement.

... contd.