Indian Coast Guard to beef up its fleet strength

The Indian Coast Guard fleet's strength will touch 200 ships and 100 aircraft by 2022, a senior official of the coastal security force said here on Friday.

Additional Director General V.S.R. Murthy also said Coast Guard is planning to set up an aviation unit in neighbouring Puducherry and also in Tuticorin.

In his address at the launch function of the first Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) built by L&T near here, he said its fleet will go up to 200 by 2022.

"Seventy ships are under construction in six shipyards. Coast Guard currently has 130 ships and 62 aircraft," Murthy said, adding that the government has approved an around Rs 32,000 crore action plan for the force.

Named ICGS Vikram, the Rs 186 crore OPV was built by L&T Shipbuilding Ltd and is the first of the seven to be manufactured.

Murthy recalled that when he joined the service, his training was in a ship named Vikram, which was later decommissioned, but now the new vessel had the same name.

He also said that the Indian Coast Guard was the fourth largest and one of the fastest growing such organisations in the world.

Apart from the 70 ships under construction, he said bidding process for 30 more ships is the process.

Murthy said Coast Guard has recently acquired 34 interceptor boats out of 36 ordered with L&T Shipbuilding and the remaining two will also be supplied soon. Each costs around Rs 30 crore.

According to B. Kannan, MD and CEO of L&T Shipbuilding Ltd, the ship will be handed over to the Coast Guard after harbour and sea trials.

He said the company's order book size is Rs 1,700 crore which will keep the company busy for the next three years.

The Rs 1,432 crore contract for building seven OPV was signed with the Defence Ministry in 2015, and stipulated delivery of the first OPV within 36 months from signing of the contract i.e. by March 2018 and subsequent vessels at intervals of six months.

However, with the construction of multiple OPVs progressing on or ahead of schedule, all are planned to be delivered ahead of the contracted delivery dates, the company said.

Queried about the local content in the OPVs, Kannan said the engine, propeller and some other components were imported while the rest are sourced from domestic companies.

He said more than 60-65 per cent are from domestic suppliers.

The vessel that is 97m long, 15m wide, has 3.6m draught, 2140 T displacementA with a range of 5,000 nautical miles is built for attaining sustained speeds of up to 26 knots.

The entire design and construction processes have undergone dual certification from American Bureau of Shipping and Indian Registrar of Shipping and the project is being overseen by the Indian Coast Guard's resident team at Kattupalli shipyard.

According to a statement from L&T, the Floating Dock (FDN-2) built for Indian Navy has undergone post launch trials and will be delivered shortly at Port Blair, suiting Navy's requirements.

In addition to new build defence ships, L&T is also undertaking Medium Refit (MR) and repairs of Naval and Coast Guard ships. Currently, INS Darshak, a Naval Survey Vessel, is undergoing refit at Kattupalli shipyard.

--IANS

vj/vd