GRSE to extend in deeper draft

The Defence Ministry is mulling over extending the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineer's(GRSE) facility in deeper draft locations and Diamond Harbour is one of the options.

"In order to build larger vessels, deeper draft is required which is not available at the current location here near Garden Reach. We are looking at Diamond Harbour as well as properties near the current location of GRSE", said M M Pallam Raju, minister of state for defence. He added that currently, heavy vessels like aircraft carriers were built at the Cochin Shipyard in Kerala. It ranks among a few shipyards in the world that have attempted to build such mammoth vessels. The indigenously designed aircraft carrier, currently under construction, would be capable of operating an aircraft mix of Russian MiG-29K, Ka31 and indigenous Light Combat Aircrafts.

The GRSE is right now building four anti-submarine warfare corvettes(ASWC) , 10 water jet fast attack crafts for the Indian Navy besides 88 fast interceptor boats for the Home Ministry. The deliveries of the ASWCs will start from 2012 and continue till 2015.

Interestingly, Diamond Harbour is the site selected by the Kolkata Port Trust(KoPT) to build a container terminal there. KoPT requires 43 acres from Defence for the Rs 1,233 crore ambitious project. The proposed terminal will have six jetties, four for handling ocean-going vessels and two for barges. It was to come up over 125 acres that included 40 acres of private land, 24 acres from the directorate of lighthouse and lightships, West Bengal Public Works Departmentand Fisheries department besides Defence and Railway land.

The Defence Ministry has recently indicated to KoPT that it would not be able to part with the land.