INS Arihant, India's indigenous nuclear submarine, was reportedly damaged in an accident 10 months ago, following which it has not been able to set sail.
An exclusive report published by The Hindu details how the all-important nuclear launch platform suffered a setback when water entered its propulsion chamber. Citing naval sources, the report said that the damage occurred as a result of "human error" — with water entering the submarine when a hatch on the rear side was accidentally left open.
Sources told the daily that repair and clean-up work – considered a task requiring a lot of time and effort in a submarine – has been going on in the vessel ever since the accident took place. They also pointed out that the submarine has been experiencing troubles from the very beginning.
Queries sent by The Hindu to the Defence Ministry have not been responded to.
The report further indicated that the political leadership was intimated of INS Arihant’s absence after the Doklam standoff broke out, as such a conflict mandates the countries to undertake “precautionary advance deployment of submarine assets”.
Notably, the setback comes after INS Chakra, another nuclear submarine, was reportedly damaged in October last year.
A 6,000 tonne vessel constructed under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project, the INS Arihant was launched on 26 July 2009 by then PM Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur at Vishakhapatnam. More than seven years later, in August 2016, the submarine was commissioned into service. It comes under the category of Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN) asset.
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