(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-03 22:26

New Delhi -- India's first indigenously-built nuclear submarine will be ready by 2009, Indian naval chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta announced on Monday.

"Advance Technology Vessel (as the Nuclear powered submarine is classified) would be ready in two years," local news agency Press Trust of India quoted the Indian naval chief in his first public comments about the project being undertaken by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), at a press conference in capital New Delhi.

"The scientists have confirmed that they would have the project ready for trials by 2009," Mehta said, even as he sought to label the project as a technology demonstrator.

Building of indigenous nuclear submarine will mark a leap forward in the country's defence preparedness.

"In our credible minimum nuclear deterrent plans, placing of nuclear weapons under sea is the third triad. We haven't been able to give more time to it recently. But I am hopeful that in the times to come, more attention would be paid to it," he said.

In the next two years, India will also acquire a Russian SSBN (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear) "Akula-class" submarine on long lease, Mehta said.

"We want the Russian Nuclear submarine to enable our boys to train on how to operate nuclear reactors and platforms and other systems," he said.