Moscow: Russia will deliver three stealth frigates worth $1.6 billion to the Indian Navy (IN) in line with the "contract deadline" of 2012, a senior official of a Russian shipyard has said. He was speaking on the sidelines of the 4th International Maritime Defence Show in St. Petersburg.

"The contract's deadline is 2012. We are not expecting any delays at this point," said Igor Orlov, director general of the Kaliningrad-based Yantar shipyard. "Russia will fulfil its obligations on schedule to supply three Project 1135.6 frigates to India by 2012,'' he said.

"The first ship will be floated out this year, the second, probably, in spring 2010, and the third - a bit later," Orlov said. A RIA Novosti report also quoted him as saying that the Indian government had provided 'sufficient and timely' project financing.

Orlov's assurance needs to understood in the light of reports emerging in February of this year which suggested that there was a likelihood of delays in this project.

''The contract deadlines are very tough and there were indeed some disruptions in the construction,'' Rosoboronexport's general director Anatoly Isaikin said in a February interview with a Russian defence magazine.

''It took some time to deal with the problems. After additional work and testing were carried out, there were no complaints with regard to the frigate. Moreover, talks are being held for an additional order of this type of combat vessel,'' Isaikin said.

According to Isaikin, most of the problems were related to advanced weaponry and electronics installed on the frigates in line with the requirements of the Indian navy.

Located in the Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, the naval shipyard Yantar is building three Project 1135.6 Krivak IV class guided missile frigates for the Indian Navy. This batch of frigates was shifted to Yantar from the St.Petersburg-based Baltiisk Zavod shipyard which built the earlier batch of three stealth frigates of this class - INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar.

These frigates were delivered two years behind schedule.

The Krivak-class frigate has deadweight of 4,000 metric tons and a speed of 30 knots, and is capable of accomplishing a wide range of maritime missions, primarily hunting down and destroying large surface ships and submarines.

A delegation of Indian defence officials, led by then India's deputy chief of naval staff, vice admiral Raman P Suthan, visited the Yantar shipyard in October last year and expressed satisfaction with the pace of the work as well as the quality of construction.

The new frigates will be armed with eight Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile systems in place of the Club-N/3M54TE missile systems on the three previous frigates of this class also known as "Talwar Class".