India and Russia have mutually agreed on the price of Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier. The Navy on Saturday said it is waiting for the government's approval to the final price with the completion of protracted talks between two countries to fix the cost .Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma told this to reporters in New Delhi on Saturday, after a visit to the NCC's Republic Day Parade Camp.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports that during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow in December, the two countries finalised the price for the repair and refit work on the aircraft carrier that was bought by India in 2004 and rechristened INS Vikramaditya. Though the ship was bought for 974 million US Dollars at that time, the Russian shipyard Sevmash hiked its costs for the repair and refit work to demand an additional 2.9 billion in a two-year period since 2007.However, after working out the costs of repair and refit, India was willing to pay only about 2.2 billion US Dollars. The discussions between the two sides ended during Dr. Singh's visit and a mutually agreed final price has now been arrived at.
News On AIR | January 16, 2010 7:14 PM
Govt approval awaited to finalize price of Gorshkov: Navy