Russia has handed over the nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa to India following more than two years of delays, a senior naval official was quoted as saying Friday.

"The signing ceremony happened yesterday at the Bolshoi Kamen ship building facility in the (Far East) Primorye region where the Nerpa is now based," the official in the naval chief of staff told ITAR-TASS.

Russian reports said an Indian crew would sail the Akula II class craft to its home base at the end of January after receiving it on a 10-year lease that has angered India's arch-rival Pakistan and resulted in retaliation threats.

The craft is due to reach its Bay of Bengal base of Visakhapatnam under the Indian flag in February and be commissioned by the navy in March.

"All of the naval tests and performance checks have been completed," the Russian official said.

"The crew will begin making themselves feel at home on board the craft after New Year and start sailing it to India in the latter half of January."

An unnamed Russian official at the Amur district facility where the Nerpa was built added that the "Indian side is fully satisfied by the volume and quality of the tests" completed on the Nerpa at sea.

The Nerpa will be the first nuclear-powered submarine to be operated by India in nearly two decades after it decommissioned its last such Soviet-built vessel in 1991.

India is currently completing the development of its own Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic submarines and the Nerpa's delivery is expected to help crews train for the domestic boat's introduction into service next year.

The Russian Pacific port ceremony was held on the same day that a shipyard fire engulfed the Northern Fleet's Yekaterinburg nuclear-powered strategic submarine in the Murmansk region on the opposite side of the country.

The Nerpa had initially been due to be handed over to India in 2009 but experienced various problems during testing.

It suffered a mishap during trials in the Sea of Japan in November 2008 that killed 20 sailors when a fire extinguisher released a deadly chemical that was accidentally loaded into the system.

Media reports said that some of the ship's equipment malfunctioned during testing and that the weapons navigation system did not work to India's specifications.

The 8,140-tonne vessel can fire a range of torpedoes as well as Granat cruise missiles that can be nuclear-tipped.

India has promised not to arm the submarine with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles under its obligations to international treaties it adopted after conducting a series of atomic tests in the 1990s.

But the craft's delivery has still upset Pakistan.

"Rest assured, there will be no compromise in terms of maintaining the credibility of our deterrence," Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit was quoted as saying by The Asian Age newspaper this week.

The submarine is due to be commissioned as the INS Chakra in India under a 2004 agreement that has seen the South Asian giant pay $650 million in construction costs.

Newspaper reports in India said New Delhi may end up paying as much as $900 million under the terms of the deal. Russia's RIA Novosti news agencies valued the contract at $920 million.

Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but New Delhi has been unhappy about delays to arms orders from Moscow and has looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States in recent years.

Russia's massive but faulty nuclear subs
Moscow (AFP) Dec 30, 2011 - The Yekaterinburg nuclear-powered submarine that caught fire while undergoing repairs near Norway's border forms the backbone of Russia's strategic deterrent and is one of its biggest vessels.

The DELTA IV class submarine is among several that can be armed with long-range nuclear weapons that both Moscow and Washington were producing at the height of the Cold War.

Here is a look at some of the submarines still in use today by Russia along with those under development. The data was compiled from Russia's specialized Flot.com navy website and the US-based GlobalSecurity.org watchdog.

The reporting names used by NATO appear in brackets.

-- Project BDR (DELTA III)

Russia lists five of the older-model strategic submarines in its ageing Pacific Fleet near Vladivostok and none in the Northern Fleet in the Murmansk region.

The oldest of the 10,600-tonne craft was commissioned in 1979 and was originally intended to have an operating lifespan of 20 to 25 years.

The Podolsk submarine in this class suffered an on-board explosion in 2004 that killed one sailor. The accident was blamed on a faulty water pressure valve and no other mishaps have been reported on a Russian DELTA III since.

-- Project BDR M (DELTA IV)

The navy's active fleet of six of the more modern versions of the DELTA is entirely based in the Murmansk region.

Ships such as the Yekaterinburg can carry the same 16 long-range nuclear weapons as the DELTA III but descend to lower depths and weigh nearly 1,200 tonnes more.

They are also 12 metres (40 feet) longer and covered with a special rubber coating that helps mute the engine and improves the vessel's stealth capabilities.

It was this coating that reportedly caught fire on board the Yekaterinburg on Thursday when it was undergoing scheduled maintenance work in a shipyard in the military town of Roslyakovo some 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of northern Norway.

-- Project 941 (TYPHOON)

This class of submarines was developed by the Soviet Union alongside the DELTA IV and is codenamed Akula (Shark) in Russian.

These massive 23,200-tonnes submarines do not have to be submerged to fire their strategic weapons and have ice-breaking capabilities.

The craft can fire up to 20 of the next-generation Bulava missiles that have experienced a series of testing failures but which Russia is now incorporating into its rocket forces.

The Murmansk-based Dmitry Donskoi is the only submarine of this type believed to be operated by Russia today. Two other vessels were decommissioned between 2004 and 2010.

-- Project 955

The navy's most recent strategic project is developing what will be known as the fourth-generation Borei class of strategic submarines.

Severe underfunding experienced with the demise of the Soviet Union led to numerous delays following the start of construction in 1996 and none of these vessels are still in operation today.

First to be commissioned is the Yury Dolgoruky -- a 14,720-tonne craft that began undergoing tests in March 2009.

It can carry up to 16 long-range nuclear missiles along with new cruise missiles and has been used in Bulava testing in the past. Two more such submarines are currently under construction.

Russia hopes to complete constructing at least eight such submarines this decade.

-- Kursk (OSCAR II)

The Kursk nuclear submarine suffered the Russian navy's worst-ever disaster when it caught fire and exploded while conducting war games in the Barents Sea in August 2000.

Most of the 118 seamen killed by the accident died instantly but some survived for several days -- with a few keeping heart-breaking diaries written in blood to their loved ones -- before suffocating.

Nuclear-powered submarines such as the Kursk are built to fire shorter-range cruise missiles that may be tipped with nuclear weapons but are primarily used in tactical campaigns.

Nerpa (AKULA II)

The nuclear-powered attack submarine suffered a deadly mishap in the Pacific in its first year of testing in 2008 but is still being leased to India as originally planned.

Twenty sailors died from the accidental release of a dangerous chemical that was mistakenly loaded into the craft's fire extinguishing system.

The 8,140-tonne vessel can fire a range of torpedoes as well as Granat cruise missiles that can be nuclear-tipped. It is due to be commissioned by India after many delays within the coming months.