The Comptroller and Auditor General has lashed the Indian Navy for causing inordinate delay in construction of four anti-submarine warfare corvettes.

One of the most serious concerns raised by the apex audit body in the country is critical deficiencies in ammunition, anti submarine warfare projects lagging behind time and lack of safety mechanism in the Navy.

The report also said that ammunition depots with a shortage of fire-fighting staff and equipment remained accident prone.

The Indian military is required to hold ammunition enough to fight a short intense war of 20 days. Earlier, Indian military was required to have store supplies, spares, and ammunition - called War Wastage Reserve (WWR) - to fight a 40-day intense war. In 1999 the WWR was scaled down to only 20 days.

"No significant improvement took place in the critical deficiency in the availability of ammunition and quality of ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) since March 2013. The shortfall in meeting the production target by OFB continued," the CAG report on Defence Services -Army and Ordnance Factories tabled in Parliament on Friday said.

The total expenditure of the Defence Services during the year 2015-16 was `2,43,534 crore. Navy spent `35,196 crores while Coast Guard spent `3,034 crore which constituted 14.45per cent and 1.25per cent respectively of the total Defence Expenditure.