NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy is set to commission three warships built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) at a ceremony in Kolkata in the third week of June, sources told TNIE.
The vessels, stealth frigate INS Dunagiri, anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft INS Agray and survey vessel INS Sanshodhak, will be inducted into service together.
Sources said the ceremony is expected to be attended by a top Union government dignitary and is likely to coincide with Prime Minister Modi’s scheduled visit to Kolkata.
The Kolkata ceremony will be only the second instance in recent years of three frontline naval platforms being commissioned together. The previous such event took place in January last year, when Modi commissioned destroyer INS Surat, frigate INS Nilgiri and submarine INS Vaghsheer at Mumbai’s Naval Dockyard.
The inductions come as the Navy pushes ahead with a series of warship acquisition and induction programmes amid an increasing Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
INS Dunagiri is the fifth Project 17A frigate and the second of the class to be built at GRSE. The frigate is armed with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles and close-in weapon systems. It is powered by a Combined Diesel or Gas propulsion system and incorporates an Integrated Platform Management System.
The warship was delivered in 80 months, compared to 93 months taken for the lead ship INS Nilgiri. Two more Project 17A frigates, INS Mahendragiri and INS Vindhyagiri, remain to be commissioned.
INS Agray is the fifth vessel under the 16-ship Arnala-class Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW-SWC) programme approved in 2013. Geared for operations in littoral waters, the vessel is equipped with lightweight torpedoes, indigenous anti-submarine rocket launchers and advanced sonar systems.
The platform is tailored for sub-hunting in shallow coastal waters, a capability that assumes significance given the Pakistan Navy’s continued focus on strengthening its submarine arm, including the induction of Hangor-class subs.
INS Sanshodhak is the fourth and final vessel of the Sandhayak-class survey ship programme. The 110-metre vessel displaces about 3,300 tonnes and is equipped with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Remotely Operated Vehicles and hydrographic survey systems used for seabed mapping and navigational charting.
Together, the three vessels will strengthen the Navy’s capabilities in surface warfare, anti-submarine operations and hydrographic surveying.