Auxiliary vessel for Indian Navy will be flagged off today

Kumpta, an auxiliary vessel to ferry 250 jawans of the Indian Navy, will be flagged off on Thursday from the yard of Shalimar Works Limited in Howrah.

State Commerce and Industry Minister Amit Mitra, senior officers of the Indian Navy, state government officials including Principal Secretary of the state Transport Department Alapan Bandhyopadhyay and Shalimar Works Limited officials would be present at the event. 

The ship, which can run at a maximum speed of 15 nautical miles with 250 jawans on board, has been built by the state government’s Shalimar Works Limited with a budget of Rs 17 crore.

The most important part is that the vessel will be used during the forthcoming International Fleet Review (IFR) to ferry not only officers and jawans of the Indian Navy, but also those from other countries. IFR will be held at Vishakhapattanam Naval Base from February 4. 

More than 90 warships from around 40 countries will be participating in the review. The vessel will be mainly used to ferry jawans from nearest docks to the warships in the outer sea. 

Besides ferrying passengers, the vessel can also be used to carry heavy goods of the Navy from dock to warships. 

In 2012, the Indian Navy had placed an order to built 15 vessels of four different types worth Rs 250 crore to Shalimar Works Limited. 

The state-run ship building yard has already handed over seven vessels to the Indian Navy. 

In every six months Shalimar Works Limited hands over one vessel to the Navy.

Three vessels with a capacity of carrying 50 jawans and two fuel barges with a capacity of 500 tonne fuel each have already been handed over. Before handing over Kumpta, the ship building company had handed over another vessel of the same kind in October 2015.

Thus, Shalimar Works Limited will be handing over eight more vessels including three fuel barges with a capacity of 200 tonne fuel each and five more like Kumpta of the total consignment of building 15 vessels for the navy.

Managing director of Shalimar Works Limited Somdev Chatterjee said, “Rest of ships will be handed over by the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018.”