Govt sanctions CISF cover to GRSE Kolkata, Kerala ISRO college

The Union Home Ministry has approved deployment of a heavy contingent of over 400 CISF commandos to secure a strategically important Kolkata-based warship building facility catering to the combat requirements of the Navy and the Coast Guard.
The multi-acre facility of the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) is located right on the banks of the Hooghly river in the West Bengal capital.
Intelligence reports have suggested a potential security threat to the facility, especially after a temporary employee of the company was arrested last year by the Kolkata police's STF for being part of a suspected ISI ring.

Official sources said an armed contingent drawn from the paramilitary will soon take charge at the facility on a Quick Reaction Team (QRT) pattern with AK assault rifles-toting commandos securing the facility round-the-clock and supervising access and exit in the facility.
The GRSE has already created infrastructure like armoury, jawan barracks and control room for the CISF squad that will be headed by a senior Commandant-rank officer.
They said a meeting of central security agencies was recently convened after which the Home Ministry also decided to deploy 100 CISF personnel to guard the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in the Valiamala area of Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram.

The premier institute, which functions under the sensitive Department of Space, has also been found to be facing similar threat. Some of the first brains of the country undertake higher studies in space technology and application at IIST, many of whom subsequently join as scientists at the premier Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Sources said effectively securing the facility was important as it is adjacent to the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, a research and development wing under the ISRO.
The GRSE in Kolkata has till now built about 100 warships
for various roles rendered by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard ranging from frigates, corvettes to fast patrol boats.

The facility, under the administrative control of the Defence Ministry, has been entrusted with building four Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvettes (ASWCs) for the Navy, of which the first 'INS Kamorta' was commissioned in 2014 by the then Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.
The 'Mini Ratna' company is one of the important firms involved in creating strategically important vessels for the Navy and is also at the forefront of the defence-related 'Make in India' campaign.
GRSE has both wet and dry docks for ship building and trial purposes which open on the river front.
The Special Task Force of the Kolkata Police had busted a suspected ISI module in the city last year and arrested few people including a temporary GRSE employee after pictures of the facility and vessels being constructed there were recovered from their possession.