New coast guard vessel to safeguard India’s maritime interests

Chennai:

In a bid to safeguard maritime interests of India in the sensitive Gulf of Mannar till International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) with Sri Lanka, Indian Coast Guard on Monday commissioned Indian Coast Guard Ship Vaibhav, the third in the series of 90 metres Class Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV).

The vessel was commissioned at Tuticorin by the director general of coastguard vice admiral Anurag G Thapliyal in the presence of inspector general S P Sharma, the commander of Coast Guard region (East).

The 90 metres OPV has been designed and built indigenously by M/S GSL and is fitted with the state of the art navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machineries.

Designed to carry one helicopter and five high-speed boats for search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol, the ship is also capable of carrying pollution response equipment to combat oil spill at sea. It also has features that include an integrated bridge system (IBS), integrated machinery control system (IMCS), power management system (PMS), high power external firefighting system and one indigenous close range naval gun along with an optical fibre control system. It is also fitted with advanced global maritime distress and safety system making it an apt platform to carry out search and rescue mission.

The vessel draws 1940 tonnes and has a maximum speed of 26 knots. It has an endurance of 4500 nautical miles and can stay at sea for 15 days without any replenishment. The ship, which will be extensively deployed for the exclusive economic zone surveillance, would be manned by 10 officers and 84 men under the command of deputy inspector general Sanjiv Trikha.