Wednesday, January 9, 2013

85pc of coastguard ship Rajkamal indigenised


Chennai:
More than 85 per cent of the newly commissioned Indian Cost Guard Ship (ICGS) Rajkamal is indigenized and is part of the ongoing indigenization drive by the government, said Union Minister of State (MoS) Defence and Independent Charge of Youth Affairs and Sport Jitender Singh.
Speaking after commissioning the Inshore Patrol Vessel ICGS Rajkamal here on Tuesday morning, the minister said the ship, the fourth in the series of eight Inshore Patrol Vessels (IPVs) designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, can achieve a maximum speed of 34 knots, with an endurance of 1500 nautical miles at an economical speed of 16 knots.
The minister also said that 10 ships would be delivered by Garden reach, Kolkata and another similar high speed 14 ships were in the process of procurement.
With the commissioning of ICGS Rajkamal, the force level of Indian coast Guard has gone up to 77 ships and boats and the government is planning to double the force level.
Director general of Coast Guard vice admiral M P Muralidharan said that Coastal Surveillance Network consisting of a chain of static radar and electro-optic sensors at 84 remote sites is envisaged all along the coastline. The first will have 46 stations are being operationalised while 38 more will be planned in the second phase.
Meanwhile, the coastguard is also planning to increase its stations to 42 by the end of the year, Muralidharan said.
Chairman and managing director of Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers rear admiral A K Verma (retd) said that GRSE has achieved all time production of Rs 1293 crore and delivered five warship to Indian Navy and coastguard.
He said the company’s order book is healthy and it has 21 ships on order including four ship under Project P-28, a state of the art ASW Corvette Class of ship.

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