I think its safe to assume that they are embarking on the project as per the report. No one expects it be finish tomorrow. As far as cost and maintance goes, i would think that the strategic planners have taken those decision into consideration before giving the go ahead. Speculating about the noise level and capability of the platform without even seeing the finish product is not being prudent.
- Pakistan has never developed its own submarines
- it cannot even build a diesel sub without France supplying some of the necessary parts
- it does not have military grade sonar or torpedo
- it has never developed any advanced submarine propeller
- I don't think it has ever developed any combat system for submarines
- gary can help me here of the subcomponents you need that Pakistan has never developed
- Pakistan needs China to help it build a 300 MW civilian reactor, how can it develop a 90 MW reactor up to the military specs? (think about the separation between the crew and the reactor, do you dare to operate the sub when you have an unsafe reactor in there?)
- does it have the steel needed for a nuclear sub?
- does it have a shipyard that's capable of building a 6000 tonne sub?
- It needed a loan from China just to purchase 4 F-22Ps for $600 million. A nuclear sub would easily cost $1 billion and that's not including any of the research and development cost.
- which goes back to the original question, how is it going to develop a nuclear sub when it has never developed even a diesel sub?