The defence ministry on Monday signed a more than Rs 900 crore contract with the state-owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam for a refit of the Kilo-class submarine INS Sindhukirti.
After completion of the Rs 934 crore refit, Sindhukirti will be combat-worthy and join the active submarine fleet of the Indian Navy.
The Russian-origin submarine which was commissioned in 1989, had earlier spent more than nine years between 2006-2015 at HSL for a mid-life refit, for which the shipyard drew flak from various quarters. The refit was planned to be completed in three years, but eventually took nine years because of the mismanagement on the part of the shipyard and the delay caused by Russian experts.
The new refit would help to develop alternate repair facilities for submarines and is a fresh step towards undertaking medium refit with life certification at HSL, the defence ministry said in a statement.