By RIA Novosti
Moscow : The construction of three steralth frigates for India is proceeding on schedule at the Yantar shipyard at Kaliningrad in Russia’s Baltic exclave, officials said.
Despite rumours and negative media reports on the construction of the frigates, top corporate managers said that everything is proceeding as planned.
The shipyard’s workers believe 27 to be their lucky number because the keel of the first frigate was laid on July 27, 2007. Construction of the second warship began on Nov 27 of the third year, and the keel of the third frigate will be laid on May 27 this year.
Project manager Viktor Bashanin said the first warship’s three-section hull would be completed in April and transferred to an open slipway to make room for the second frigate.
The project, which involves 500 workers, started in April 2007 when the first metal sheet was cut. The large-scale hull section construction process is particularly difficult because all sections must be joined and welded with the utmost precision and because the future hull’s durability directly depends on this.
Under the Russian-Indian contract, all three frigates are to be completed by April 2012. Project supervisors from India are quite happy about the professionalism of the Russian workers.
Bashanin said the shipyard had expanded production by 600 percent since 2000. Tax proceeds have grown by 200 percent. The number of workers has increased from 300 to 2,000 since 2000, and their wages have gone up by 500 percent.
Although most shipbuilders are men, the company mostly employs women as crane operators.