<div><p>India announced plans Thursday to shift control of a major shipyard to the military to boost naval warship production amid complaints of delays in existing projects.</p><p>The announcement came two days after the military expressed concern about India's depleted underwater combat capabilities due to delays in constructing tactical submarines for the 134-ship navy.</p><p>Information Minister Ambika Soni said the cabinet would transfer control of the country's second largest shipyard, Hindustan Shipbuilding Yard, to the military from the shipping industry.</p><p>"It is going to be transferred to the ministry of defence for meeting national security requirements of building strategic vessels for the Indian navy," Soni told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.</p><p>On Tuesday, a top government security panel said it was worried about delays in a 30 billion-rupee (6.6 billion-dollar) project codenamed P75-India to build six submarines by 2015.</p><p>"Concern over the delays had been expressed by the navy and the defence ministry," a senior government official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.</p><p>The navy, which launched its first nuclear-powered submarine in July, praised Soni's announcement.</p><p>"It is a forward step and will go a long way to assist in the nation's indigenous warship-building activity," navy spokesman commander K.V. Satish told AFP.</p><p>Satish said the navy had regarded the "current rate of warship building as inadequate".</p><p>He also said a 2.4 billion-euro (three billion-dollar) project to locally build six Franco-Spanish Scorpene submarines had also been delayed because of capacity restraints.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65961699&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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