Garden Reach Shipbuilders hand over its 100th warship to Indian Navy

The landing craft utility (LCU) is an amphibious vessel that can transport and deploy main battle tanks, armoured vehicles, troops and equipment from ship to shore

Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers, (GRSE), a 58-year-old Kolkata-based public sector company, on Saturday handed over to the Indian Navy the 100th vessel it has made so far.

GRSE makes vessels for the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Mauritius Coast Guard.

The 100th vessel, a landing craft utility (LCU), was handed over by Rear Admiral V K Saxena (Retd.) chairman and managing director, GRSE to the commanding officer of the ship, Lt. Cdr. Gopinath Narayanan of the Indian Navy.

Sanjay Mitra, Union defence secretary, Vice Admiral BK Verma, Commander- in-Chief, Aandaman and Nicobar Naval Command and other senior officers were also present at the ceremony,

The ship is an amphibious vessel that can transport and deploy main battle tanks, armoured vehicles, troops and equipment from ship to shore, the GRSE said a statement .

These ships are based at the Andaman and Nicobar Naval Command and can be used in a variety of situations such as search and rescue, disaster relief operations, supply and replenishment and evacuation from distant islands.

On March 27, GRSE handed over its 99th warship, “ICGS Priyadarshini”, an advanced fast patrol vessel (FPV) to the Indian Coast Guard. GRSE is executing an order for five FPVs for the Coast Guard. ICGS Priyadarshini, is the first in the series

The LCU handed over on Saturday was the sixth among eight such vessels Indian Navy has placed order for.

The LCUs can move at a speed of 15 knots (27.78 km) an hour. Each can accommodate 216 personnel and is equipped with two close range naval guns to provide artillery support during landing operations

GRSE said in the statement that it has built the largest number of ships for the Indian Navy, with 67 of the 100 handed over to the naval forces. These include frigates, missile corvettes, anti-submarine warfare corvettes, fleet tankers, landing ship tank, landing craft utility to survey vessels, offshore patrol vessels and fast attack craft.

GRSE is currently executing orders worth Rs 217 billion, said the statement.