Navy chief Admiral Sunil lanba on Friday confirmed reports that nuclear powered submarine INS Chakra suffered partial damage and said a Board of Inquiry was on in the Eastern Command to find the cause leading to the accident. The mishap took place in early October near Visakhapatnam and a sonar dome and two panels of the submarine were damaged. These domes located in the bow of the submarine are used to detect enemy submarines and warships. lanba said the submarine will be operational "sooner than later."
Russian built nuclear powered Akula class INS Chakra was inducted into the Indian Navy in 201I on a lease for ten years for 600 million dollars. A joint team of Indian and Russian engineers inspected the damage, the Navy chief said.
While he refrained from giving details about the mishap, reports indicated that the sonars were damaged when INS Chakra was sailing entering the Visakhapatnam harbor through the narrow sea channel. Reports said the sonar had a five feet by five feet hole due to the mishap and will take time to repair it.
However, its nuclear reactor, which powers the submarine did not suffer any damage, sources said claiming the damage to the sonars was also not "serious." The submarine is based at INS Virbahu, the submarine base in Visakhapatnam. It met with an accident in 2008 too while undergoing sea trials in Russia.
The Russian submarine was inducted into the Indian Navy to enable the Indian crew to train to operate a nuclear powered submarine and later on use this expertise to navigate the indigenously designed and developed India's first nuclear powered submarine. Incidentally, INS Arihant is also based in Visakhapatnam. India is already negotiating for proposed induction of a second Russian nuclear powered submarine on lease.