Cochin Shipyard (CSL) launches the eighth Fast Patr ol Vessel
Cochin Shipyard has launched the eighth of the 20 Fast Patrol Vessel being built for Indian Coast Guard, the company said in its press release. The vessel was launched by Smt Arti Bhatnagar, Joint Secretary & Finance Manager (Maritime Systems), Ministry of Defense in a simple ceremony at Cochin Shipyard. Cmde K Subramaniam, CMD, CSL, Shri Ravikumar Roddam, Director (Finance), CSL, Shri Vinayakumar P, Director (Technical) and other senior CSL officials were present on the occasion.
The launch of the vessel comes on the heels of the delivery of the fifth vessel CGS Achook which was handed over to the Coast Guard on 28 th March 2014. The first reading of D 448 (Acceptance protocol of delivery of fifth FPV) was signed by Capt R S Sundar, Director (Operations), on behalf of CSL and commanding officer designate of BY 505 (ICGS ACHOOK) Lt Cdr Rahul Gautam of Indian Coast Guard. DIG Vivek Vajpayee, Principal Director (Materials) , Indian Coast Guard and DIG T P Sadanandan, CGRPS (Kochi) were present on the occasion.
This is the seventh ship that the yard has delivered this financial year. CSL delivered four fast patrol vessels to Indian Coast Guard and two high end Platform Supply Vessels to Norwegian owners, earlier. The last six months have been an extremely busy period for the shipyard with seven deliveries being made, virtually one ship every month. The highpoint of this year’s performance for the shipyard has undoubtedly been the launching of the most prestigious warship of the Indian Navy “Vi krant” on 12 August 2013. The launching of its own aircraft carrier has catapulted India to a select club of 5 nations capable of building aircraft carriers of this size.
