Several warship construction projects of the Indian Navy are running behind schedule, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said Friday.The minister told the Lok Sabha that there had been occasions when warship construction projects have had time and/or cost escalation.He said the major reasons for these include unavailability of warship grade steel, delay in design finalization and receipt of critical equipment or technology, infrastructural constraints of shipyards and delays in development of indigenous equipments and weapons.
Jaitley said the progress of each project was monitored at various levels at the naval headquarters and the defence ministry. "Naval Warship Overseeing Teams are positioned at the shipyard to constantly liaise with the shipyard to expedite resolution of issues," he said in a written reply to Ranjeet Ranjan and Rajesh Ranjan. Outstanding issues were addressed during Progress Review Meetings at the naval headquarters, the minister said.Major issues pertaining to progress and delays in projects, if any, were addressed during the Apex Committee Meetings at the defence ministry, he added.The defence ministry also undertook modernization of Defence Public Sector Undertakings in terms of infrastructure to enhance productivity from time to time, Jaitley said. "In addition, various contractual provisions including milestone based payments (and) penalty for delays are built into the contracts."At times, delays have been encountered in warship projects with private sector on account of similar reasons and also on account of financial issues."