Inshore patrol vessel — Rani Durgavati — joined the Indian Coast Guard on Monday with its commissioning here by Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Satish Soni in the presence of IG (Coast Guard) R.P. Sharma and HSL CMD Rear Admiral (Retd.) N.K. Mishra.
Coastal security had undergone a sea change after the 26/11 terror attack, said Vice Admiral Soni while addressing the gathering and described all agencies involved as equally important partners in preparedness.
However, Coast Guard was the most important constituent in maintaining close liaison with various agencies involved. The Coast Guard and the Marine Police were increasing their force levels, he said. “INCG Rani Durgavati is another arrow in the quiver of the Coast Guard,” he added.
Vice Admiral Soni showered praise on the HSL for its “outstanding job” in building 174 ships and repairing 2,000 vessels across the range, including submarines.
Exponential growth
Commander Coast Guard (East) Inspector-General S.P. Sharma said that the Indian Coast Guard had witnessed exponential growth and was the fourth largest in the world with 118 ships, 63 aircraft, and over 10,000 officers and men.
“Besides, 84 ships and craft are under construction at eight yards. The force levels will be stabilised with their joining by 2019. They will be evenly distributed across the 42 CG stations,” he said.
Coast Guard DIG (CGRPT) S.S. Malik, Commander CG Andhra Pradesh J.S. Sabharwal, DGNP Vice Admiral D.M. Deshpande, Commanding Officer of Rani Durgavati Zakir Hussain, Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise Deepa Dasgupta, and Police Commissioner Amit Garg participated.
Designed for speed
HSL CMD said that Rani Durgavati was weight sensitive. But in spite of that, the designed speed had been achieved in collaboration with Australia’s Thorny Craft.
HSL had struggled hard and worked hand-in-hand with the Coast Guard Refit and Production Team. Though HSL went wrong initially, it and others shipyards could learn from its mistakes, Rear Admiral (Retd.) Mishra said.
Rani Durgavati, the third inshore patrol vessel in a series of five, is named after the legendary Gond Queen who defeated the army of Baz Bahadur of the Mughal Army.
The vessel, indigenously built by HSL, has a maximum speed of 34 knots. At an economical 14 knots, it has an endurance of 150 nautical miles.
