The Fourth of the 105 m class of Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel (NOPV), INS SUMITRA, indigenously designed in-house and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd was handed over to the Indian Navy on 16 July, 2014. The vessel was handed over by RAdm (Retd) Shekhar Mital, NM, Chairman & Managing Director, Goa Shipyard Limited to Cdr Milind Mokashi, Commanding Officer Designate, “INS SUMITRA” in presence of Cmde Saurabh Dev, CEO, HQENC in a simple ceremony in Goa. Shri R Choudhary, Director(Operations), Shri Anand Golwalkar, Chief General Manager (Prod), Shri Sunil D Ghodgaonkar, Chief General Manager (Plg), Shri Ravi Prakash, Project Coordinating Manager, GSL, Capt Anish M J Nair, WPS, and other officials of Indian Navy and GSL were also present on the occasion. INS SUMITRA, the Indian Navy’s largest Offshore Patrol Vessel, is fitted with large number of state-of-the-art indigenous electronic, communication and weapon systems. Vessel will help meet the increasing requirements of the Indian Navy for undertaking ocean surveillance and surface warfare operations in order to prevent infiltration and transgression of maritime sovereignty and is suitable for monitoring sea lanes of communication, defence of offshore oil installations and other critical offshore national assets. Besides, the Vessel can be deployed for escorting high value ships and fleet support operations.
RAdm (Retd) Shekhar Mital, NM, CMD, GSL in his message said “ It is a matter of great pride for GSL to complete the series construction of Four NOPVs for the Indian Navy within the contracted time schedule and at ‘fixed’ cost. We have, taken forward the tradition of building our in-house design ships, a capability which puts us in a different league with respect to other shipyards in the country’’.
[su_frame align=”left”]“Another timely delivery of major war vessel OPV at a ‘fixed’ cost by GSL to Indian Navy. With this, GSL has delivered three OPVs in last ten months, 15 OPVs till date and nine more are under construction”[/su_frame]
It may be recalled that in order to reinforce the country’s maritime defence, four NOPVs were contracted to Goa Shipyard Limited. The first, second and third of the series of 105 meter class of NOPV – INS SARYU, SUNAYNA and SUMEDHA were earlier handed over to the Indian Navy by GSL on 21 December 2012, 02 September 2013 and 14 January 2014 respectively. Three NOPVs within last ten months have been handed over by GSL, a record for any shipyard.
CMD also gave insight in the ongoing construction of six OPVs for Coast Guard and indicated that construction is in full swing and we will launch three OPVs in succession from Sep – Dec14. Further the first vessel will be ready for delivery as per schedule by Oct 15 and all six vessels will be delivered by Nov 17. This will further reinforce our unwavering commitment for timely delivery of ships to Navy and Coast Guard.
GSL is implementing a massive modernisation programme at an outlay of over Rs 700 crores for the production of cutting edge technology warships including MCMVs to meet the requirements of the nation’s naval defence.
CMD further said “The excellent support that GSL has received from the Government of India, Ministry of Defence Production / Acquisition, Forces and the State Government has also played a major role in this long and challenging journey. Our customers, principally the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard have consistently reposed their faith in our abilities, which has given GSL the impetus to constantly innovate and progress.
