Russia will keep to the time period specified in the contract for the retrofit of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy, the head of Russia's united shipbuilding corporation said on Tuesday.
"We are catching up with the retrofit of the Admiral Gorshkov," Roman Trotsenko said. "We will fulfill the obligations Russia has undertaken."
The two countries have signed a deal on upgrading the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, following an earlier statement from the Indian government's security committee that it would allocate $2.3 billion to retrofit the ship.
The initial refit agreement of $750 million went up by an additional $1.5 billion. In line with the contract, the aircraft carrier will be handed over to India by 2012.
The Admiral Gorshkov is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier, originally named Baku. The ship was laid down in 1978 at the Nikolayev South shipyard in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned with the Soviet Navy in 1987.
It was renamed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the Admiral Gorshkov sat in dock for a year for repairs. In 1995, it briefly returned to service and in 1996 was finally withdrawn and put up for sale.
The ship has a displacement capacity of 45,000 tons. It has a maximum speed of 32 knots and an endurance of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km) at a cruising speed of 18 knots.
SOCHI, May 4 (RIA Novosti)
