On Tuesday the Indian Coast Guard completed a milestone in its expansion program in fleet with the keel laying of two new generation offshore patrol vessels at a shipyard in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.

The Yard 16402 and Yard 16403 ceremony, which is the second and third ships in a series of six, took place at a plant run by the partner yard of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, as part of an indigenous shipbuilding project under the push of the Indian government to be self-reliant in defence production.

The ships are designed under the government procurement route of Buy (Indian-IDDM), where the government procurement focus is on the local design, development and production. In December 2023, the contract of all six ships was signed.

The new offshore patrol vessels are strategized to have a long sea range as authorities claim that they can operate in the sea up to a distance of 5,000 nautical miles and at maximum speed of 23 knots. The length of every ship will be about 117 metres and will have 11 officers and 110 personnel.

AI-Based Predictive Maintenance

The sites will be prepared with modernized systems such as AI-based predictive maintenance, remotely operated drones, an Integrated Bridge System and an Integrated Platform Management System – systems that will promote efficiency at work and minimize downtimes.

Inspector General Sudhir Sahni, Deputy Director General (Materials and Maintenance), conducted the keel laying, an important occasion in the life of a ship that formally started the building of a vessel, in the company of top officials of the Coast Guard and the shipyard.

It is hoped that as the new vessels will be induced, the Coast Guard will be made more capable of carrying out surveillance, search and rescue, and law enforcement operations within the vast maritime areas of India. It is also introduced at the time of growing focus on coastal security and protection of maritime interests.

According to the officials, the project is part of continuing to modernise the fleet of the Coast Guard and assist in developing domestic shipbuilding capacities as part of the government initiative of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

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