Navy's new warship project awaits FinMin nod

NEW DELHI: The Defence Ministry has sent a naval project for building four new guided missile destroyer warships to Finance Ministry for clearance, before it goes to Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for final approval.

Defence Ministry officials said here today that the project that may be worth Rs 30,000 crore envisaged building the guided missile destroyers as a follow-on to the on-going project of Kolkata class warships.

Codenamed 'Project 15B', the four new Destroyers with stealth features superior to the Kolkata class would be constructed at the Mumbai-based Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL).

The three Kolkata-class destroyers are under construction at MDL under the long-delayed Rs 11,662-crore Project 15A and are scheduled for delivery to the Navy between 2012 and 2014.

The new destroyers will be of 6,700 tonnage with advanced sensors and weapons suite.

This month, the CCS had approved a proposal to increase the financial powers of Defence Minister A K Antony under which proposal worth over Rs 1,000 crore alone will go to the CCS for approval.