Two new fast interceptor crafts to be inducted in Navy's Bengal area

Two new fast interceptor crafts will be inducted in the Indian Navy's Bengal area, taking its total fleet strength at Kolkata to eight, a top official said on Friday.

For any other effort necessary in the coastline or in the shores of West Bengal, he said that surface ships or naval aircrafts are brought in from Visakhapatnam, the Eastern Naval Command headquarters.

"The Navy has two fast interceptor crafts, which have been recently inducted and we hope that two more will join in the future," Naval Officer-in-Charge (NOIC) Commodore Rituraj Sahu said at a press conference at INS Netaji Subhas, the Navy's Bengal area base headquarters here.

Sahu said the Navy's Bengal area has four more capable patrol crafts in Kolkata.

The 51st Indian Navy Day will be celebrated on December 4 to commemorate the audacious and devastating attack carried out by the Indian Naval forces' missile boats on Pakistan naval warships, and Karachi port on that date in 1971 under Operation Trident'.

"The success of Operation Trident and the blockading of Chittagong harbour on the eastern seaboard by the Indian Navy contributed to the overall dominating results of the armed forces in the Indo-Pak war of 1971," Sahu said.

The Navy is very closely knit with the state government here, he said, adding, the maritime force is ready to help whenever it receives any request for assistance from the administration.

"One such request that comes up every year is for the Gangasagar Mela' during which we deploy various rescue as well as diving teams," he said.

The annual Gangasagar Mela at Sagar Island, situated 130 km from Kolkata at the confluence of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal, attracts lakhs of pilgrims.

"This year, too, we are going to do the same (deploy teams at the fair)," Sahu said.