NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: An Indian navy officer died and some other workers have been sickened Friday by a gas leak in a ship being built in the Mumbai dockyard, just two weeks after a fatal submarine accident prompted the resignation of the country’s top naval commander.

The state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited said in a statement that the ill workers were hospitalized, after being affected by a leak of carbon dioxide on the INS Kolkata, which was docked at a naval shipyard in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital.

It said a malfunction in the carbon dioxide unit led to the gas leak during trials in the ship being built for the Indian navy.

Two navy officers were killed in a fire on a submarine last week during a training exercise off Mumbai’s coast.

India’s navy chief Adm. D.K. Joshi resigned to take responsibility for that accident and other incidents that have plagued the navy in recent years.

Last August, another of the navy’s Russian-made diesel-powered submarines, the INS Sindhurakshak, caught fire after an explosion and sank at its home port in Mumbai, killing all 18 sailors on board.

In December, the INS Talwar, a Russian-built stealth frigate, slammed into a trawler off India’s west coast, sinking the boat and tossing 27 fishermen into the sea. All of the fishermen were rescued.

The Indian Navy has been without a chief since Admiral D.K. Joshi resigned last month after a fire on one of the country’s submarines, the INS Sindhuratna, killed two officers.

Indian Navy ships have been hit by a string of accidents in the past few months with the worst involving the INS Sindurakshak, a submarine which burst into flames in Mumbai harbour last August, killing 18 sailors and sinking the vessel.

No further details of the incident were immediately available.

The guided-missile destroyer, now being put through sea trials, had been due to be commissioned in 2010, but project delays pushed launch plans to this year.

Foot-dragging by Defense Ministry officials has been blamed for delays in commissioning new vessels that have undermined India’s ability to defend its 7,500-km coastline.