GRSE Hands Over One Hundredth War Ship to Indian Navy
Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers Ltd., (GRSE), a Miniratna Category 1 and a leading warship building company in the country under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence delivered its 100th warship to the Indian Navy on March 30. This makes GRSE the first Indian shipyard to make and deliver 100 warships to the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Mauritius Coast Guard.
What started in 1961 with the delivery of Seaward Defence Boat (Mk-I) is seeing a splendid culmination with the delivery of the 100th ship – A Landing Craft Utility, L-56. The 99th warship – a Fast Patrol Vessel – was delivered to Indian Coast Guard on March 27.
The 100th warship, ‘IN LCU L-56’ was formally ‘Handed Over’ by chairman & managing director, GRSE, Rear Admiral V. K. Saxena (retd.) to the Commanding Officer of the Ship, Lt. Cdr Gopinath Narayanan at the Ceremony held in GRSE. CSO (Tech), A&N Command, Brigadier SY Deshmukh carried out Final Inspection of the Ship prior to acceptance by the. Defence Secretary, Sanjay Mitra, Commander in Chief, A&N Command, Vice Admiral BK Verma, Dy Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral MS Pawar, Director General (Acquisition) at Ministry of Defence, Apurva Chandra, Principal Director Ship Production, Cmde IB Uthaiah, Director (Finance), Sarvjit Singh Dogra, Director (Personnel), Asit Kumar Nanda and Director (Shipbuilding) Cmde. Sanjeev Nayyar (retd) and other Senior Officials of GRSE, Indian Navy were present at the Occasion.
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, armoured vehicles, troops and equipment from ship to shore. These ships based at the Andaman and Nicobar Command, can be deployed for multirole activities like beaching operations, search and rescue, disaster relief operations, supply and replenishment and evacuation from distant islands.
Currently GRSE has a strong order book of Rs. 21,700 crore approximately. equipping the shipyard with a deep pool of revenue-generating projects. 14 ships across 5 projects including 4 Nos. Survey Vessels (Large), won on competitive basis are presently under construction. GRSE has also been declared successful bidder in competitive bidding for another 8 ASWSWC ships for the Indian Navy.
GRSE’s association with the Indian Navy is long and strong as over the last six decades the shipyard has been building warships and other vessels for the country’s Navy and Coast Guard. With 100 warships successfully built, the shipyard already boasts of constructing highest number of warships in the country.