100 warships will be delivered to Indian Navy in 2017, says Kolkata-based manufacturer

Kolkata: Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE) will deliver 100 warships to the Navy in February-March 2017 and become the first shipbuilding yard of the country to do so, a top official said today.

"Next year in February-March, we will deliver our 100 warships. This is a rare distinction for a shipbuilding yard as we will be the first shipbuilding yard of the country which has manufactured 100 warships, apart from 700 vessels," GRSE's CMD Rear Admiral (retd) A K Verma told reporters here a day before his retirement.

On plans of building a submarine manufacturing plant at Raichak, Verma said, "The plan is still there but I feel we need a larger area closer to the sea."

GRSE has delivered 15 warships and launched 18 such vessels over the last five years.

"After the modernisation, the installed capacity of the shipyard was enhanced to undertake concurrent construction of 14 ships. The shipyard has already made a beginning in this regard by adopting modular construction on LCU project and will soon implement the same on prestigious Advanced Stealth Project P-17A for Indian Navy," he said

"We have now an order book of Rs 30,000 crore, which is an achievement in itself," Verma said.

GRSE created history in 2014 when it delivered the first warship built in India for export -- the CGS Barracuda to Mauritius.

INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt, the first two anti-submarine warfare corvettes built by GRSE, with 90 per cent indigenous content, were delivered to the Indian Navy in July 2014 and November 2015 respectively.

GRSE is the premier warship building company in India, under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence.