Frozen prospects

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta has gone blue in the face claiming the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier will join the Indian Navy by 2008-end despite the Russians reporting a major delay in the project on account of dried up funds and gross underestimation of cabling in the floating airfield. According to the Indo-Russian contract the ship, rechristened Vikramaditya, was to be in India for Independence Day 2008. But the aircraft carrier is being refurbished at the Sevmash Shipyard, which lies at the mouth of the White Sea in North Russia. It will have to be towed to Murmansk which is snow free through the year due to warm currents port before the onset of winter in the White Sea. Admiral Mehta is perhaps looking at the positive side of global warming and climate change.