Staff Correspondent
Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) delivered its 100th warship to the Indian Navy on March 30, 2019. This makes GRSE the first Indian shipyard to make and deliver 100 warships to the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Mauritius Coast Guard. The 99th warship – a Fast Patrol Vessel – was delivered to Indian Coast Guard on 27 Mar 19. The latest 100th warship, ‘IN LCU L-56’ was formally handed over by Rear Admiral VK Saxena (Retd) Chairman & Managing Director, GRSE to the Commanding Officer of the Ship, Lt Cdr Gopinath Narayanan at a ceremony held in GRSE today.
Brigadier SY Deshmukh, CSO (Tech), A&N Command carried out Final Inspection of the Ship prior to acceptance by the Indian Navy. Sanjay Mitra, Defence Secretary; Vice Admiral BK Verma, Commander-in-Chief, A&N Command; Vice Admiral MS Pawar, Dy Chief of Naval Staff; Apurva Chandra, Director General (Acquisition) at Ministry of Defence; Cmde IB Uthaiah, Principal Director Ship Production; Sarvjit Singh Dogra, Director (Finance); Asit Kumar Nanda, Director (Personnel) and Cmde Sanjeev Nayyar (Retd), Director (Shipbuilding) and other senior officials of GRSE, Indian Navy were present.
The 100th warship, a Landing Craft Utility (LCU) named IN LCU L56 is the sixth of an order of eight such vessels from the Indian Navy. The entire design of these LCU Mark IV ships has been developed in-house by GRSE as per requirements specified by Indian Navy. The construction of the balance two ships is progressing as per the schedule. LCU Mk-IV ship is an amphibious ship with its primary role being transportation and deployment of Main Battle Tanks, Armored Vehicles, troops and equipment from ship to shore. The LCU is 63 m in length and 11 m wide and has a displacement of 830 T with a low draught of 1.7 m. It can achieve speed of 15 knots. The LCU is designed to accommodate 216 personnel and is equipped with two Indigenous CRN 91 Guns to provide artillery fire support during landing operations. The ship is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment and advanced systems like Integrated Bridge System (IBS) and Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS).
The 99th warship, ‘ICGS Priyadarshini’, is an advanced Fast Patrol Vessel for the Indian Coast Guard, first in the series of five such crafts. The FPV is a medium range surface vessel capable for operations in Maritime Zones of India including patrolling, anti-smuggling, anti-poaching and rescue operations. The entire design of these FPVs has been developed in-house. The ship is 50 Meter long, 7.5 Meters wide with a displacement of around 308 Tonnes.
The ship is designed for a maximum speed of 34 knots with an endurance of more than 1500 nautical miles, and is equipped with 3 main engines with Advanced Control Systems, Water Jet Units and an ‘Integrated Bridge System’ integrating all communication and navigation systems. The ships are also fitted with 40/60 Gun as main armament and will also have improved habitability features with fully air conditioned modular accommodation for 35 personnel. The GRSE has so far built frigates, missile corvettes, Anti-Submarine Warfare corvettes, fleet tankers, Landing Ship Tank, Landing Craft Utility to survey vessels, Offshore Patrol Vessels and Fast Attack Craft.