NEW DELHI: A day after the Defence Ministry said the Trishul missile project would be closed in December this year, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the Government had extended it by one year on the "suggestion of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)."

The Trishul is in the centre of a controversy after the Central Bureau of Investigation alleged pay-offs in importing an alternative, the Israeli Barak system.

Defence Ministry officials had given a chronology of Trishul's development to assert that the missile was far from induction on naval ships. This was why the Barak system was imported to give Indian warships protection against anti-ship missiles acquired by Pakistan.

Not to be shelved

Speaking to newspersons on Tuesday, Mr. Mukherjee said the work on the Trishul anti-missile defence system, which formed part of the bouquet of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), was in progress and was likely to be completed by December next year. The project's completion date [started in 1984] was to get over by December 2006 and on the suggestion of DRDO, he had extended the same by one year on September 29, 2006. "Therefore, there is no question of shelving the project," he said.

The Minister lauded the R&D work on the missile and said a number of milestones had been achieved by Indian defence scientists while working on the Trishul Project.

DRDO chief M. Natrajan said: "[The] Trishul is a common missile that can be used by the Army, Air Force and the Navy."

Giving a broad overview of the IGMDP, he said, the programme encompassed five projects such as Trishul, Prithvi, Nag, Agni and Akash. Of these, Agni had been developed and inducted. Prithvi, designed as an artillery weapon up to 150 km, had been upgraded for use by the Air Force up to 250 km and had also been modified for Naval application.

"Akash has done pretty well and the anti-tank missile, Nag, has been accepted by the Army," he added.

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