MOSCOW: Russia is set to breach a contract to refurbish a Soviet-era aircraft carrier for the Indian navy, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing officials at the firm upgrading the ship.

“The contract is off target by three years,” Interfax news agency cited a senior official at the Sevmash shipyard in northwest Russia as saying. The total value of the contract is $1.5 billion.

“Due to the breach of contract with India, the general director of the factory, Vladimir Pastukhov, has been fired,” the official said.

“The realistic timeframe to launch the ship for tests and the subsequent delivery to the Indian Navy is 2011.” The company may have to negotiate additional financing to complete the work, the official said. The deal to refurbish the 44,570-tonne Admiral Gorshkov carrier aircraft was signed in 2004 between India and Russia, its main arms supplier.

The Soviet-era Admiral Gorshkov was to fill the vacuum left by the scrapping in 1997 of India's first aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, which had been in service since 1961.

The Indian navy has only one operational aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat.—AFP