The Comptroller and Auditor-General has faulted the Navy and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) for delay in construction of Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) corvettes and hampering their capabilities due to delayed decisions. The report said that the approved designs were amended 24 times till as late as 2016.
In the report presented in the Parliament last week, the CAG referred to specific equipment to be installed on two of the four ships delivered and said, “Against the 18 weapons and sensors to be installed on ASW Corvettes, audit observed that the two ASW corvettes delivered were not fitted with ‘X’ weapon and sensor systems. Thus, ASW corvettes could not perform to its full potential as envisaged.”
On the overall project the report noted that while the LoI was issued in March 2003, only a sketchy specification of the ship was made available to Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) and finalisation of system design as well as specification of equipment, weapon and sensor fit were to be undertaken by Directorate of Naval Design (DND). “DND finalised the same only in the year 2006 and major modifications continued till 2008,” the report said.
Due to the major design modifications, the cost went up from the original sanction of ₹3051.27 to ₹7852.39 crore.
The first corvette was delivered to the Navy in July 2014 and second one in November 2015. According to the contract for the project, the third corvette should have been delivered in July 2014 and fourth in April 2015.
The federal auditor also noted that Harbour Acceptance Trials (HATs) was still pending as of December 2016 in respect of the second ASW Corvette for over a year.
In addition, Sea Acceptance Test (SAT) on six weapons and sensors in the first corvette and all weapons and sensors on the second one were pending satisfactory completion.