Trishul Project not shelved, to be completed by 2007: Pranab

New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today dismissed media reports that the Trishul Anti-Missile project has been shelved, and said it is likely be completed by December next year.

''Since last evening there has been a good deal of confusion about the shelving of the project. I would like to point out that the project has not been shelved,'' Mr Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of the Naval Commanders' Conference here.

He said the project's completion date was to be over by December this year. But on the suggestion of the DRDO he had extended it by one year on September 29.

''Therefore, there is no question of shelving that project,'' he added.

According to media reports, the problems afflicting the Trishul project are non-availability of critical components and sub systems due to sanctions, and shortage of experienced scientists during the critical stages of development of the missile.

The Defence Minister said the present controversy was not about the merit of the weapon system.

The FIR already filed by the CBI related to the cases referred to the Defence Ministry on which investigation took place in the Commission. When the Commission could not complete its work, the government deceided to send all those matters to the CBI. After investigations, the CBI in some cases found that these were fit cases to file FIRs, he added.

''It is not about the merit or demerit of a weapon system or any other weapon system. It is about whether the procedures have been duly followed and whether there is any criminality in the transaction. Only on these two issues, the FIR has been filed. But the entire (media) focus is on whether a particular system is good or bad-- it is not the issue. The issue is totally different,'' he said.

Mr M Natrajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, said Trishul was a common missile that can be used by the Army, Air Force and the Navy Giving a broad overview of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), he said, it consisted of five projects-- Trishul, Prithvi, Nag, Agni and Akash.

''Of these, Agni has been developed and inducted. Prithvi was designed as an artillery weapon for 150 Km range. It has been upgraded for Air Force for use up to 250 Km and it has also been modified for Naval application.'' He said Akash had done pretty well and the anti-tank missile, Nag, had been accepted by the Army.

The status of IGMDP was reviewed by the Guided Missile Board (GMB), chaired by Mr Natrajan, in its meeting on November 11, 2005.

The review indicated that there was a need for establishing long-term production requirement in addition to proving the system for Services which merits further PDC (Probable Date of Completion) extension of the IGMDP, Defence Ministry sources said.

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