Two CSL-built patrol vessels commissioned
KOCHI: Aryaman and Atulya, fast patrol vessels (FPV) built by the Cochin Shipyard for the Coast Guard, will start keeping vigil along the coast soon.
The FPVs were inducted into service of the Indian Coast Guard at a function held at the Ernakulam Wharf here on Friday.
While ICGS Aryaman will be based in Kochi under the Coast Guard Region-West, ICGS Atulya will by deployed in Visakhapatnam under Coast Guard Region-East. The ships were commissioned by Sunil Kumar Kohli, financial advisor to the Defence Services. Addressing the gathering, Kohli said the current defence pension budget of `82,000 crore was not sufficient to meet the requirement. “A request has been placed before the Minister of Defence to revise it up to `1 lakh crore,” he said.
Commandant Neeraj Singh was appointed commanding officer of Aryaman, and commandant Sivapradas was appointed commanding officer of Atulya. The vessels are the 18th and 19th among a series of 20 FPVs being built by the Shipyard for the Coast Guard. The 50-metre-long ships are fitted with state-of-the-art communication/navigation equipment.
They are capable of achieving a maximum speed of 33 nautical miles, and undertaking multifarious tasks such as surveillance, interdiction, rescue and medical evacuation. Each ship will have five officers and 34 personnel onboard.