Navy’s first indigenous fleet replenishment tanker set to roll

Addressing the officers after receiving the ceremonial guard of honour before commissioning the ship, Pathak said the Centre was committed to accord prominence to maritime issues.

As part of this commitment, the Centre, he said, had recently decided to go ahead with building our own air defence ship and pursue construction of two more submarines.

He said "we need to re-eastablish our capabilities on the high seas and steps are being taken not only to revive our mercantile marine, but to build a Navy capable of defending the mainland, our island territories, offshore assets, sea lanes of communications and the exclusive economic zone".

History, Pathak said, had proved that nations which mastered skills and acquired resources to successfully exploit the oceans prospered and those which failed or neglected to do so were at disadvantage.

Later, talking to newsmen, he said increased provision of Rs 1900 crore in the 10th plan as against Rs 1,241 crore in the 9th plan for defence production was aimed at reaching self-reliance by at least 90 per cent as against 65 to 70 per cent self-reliance in the sector through upgradation and modernisation.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was approached for examining the possibility of defence production through private industry, he said.

With the commissioning of the INS Aditya, which is to participate in the naval exercises tomorrow off Viskhapatnam, the country had realised the dream of becoming "blue water navy", Pathak said.

The ship, he said, enabled the defence forces to conduct amphibious operations at any time and place while remaining at sea for extended duration.

Receiving the ship from the builders on behalf of the Navy, Vice Admiral Vinod Pasricha, flag officer commanding eastern naval command, said acquiring such state-of-the-art ships had become necessary in view of the increased security concerns in the seas.

For a congenial climate, the Indian Navy, he said, had begun joint bi-annual exercises in collaboration with six neighbouring maritime states including Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the warships INS Rana and INS Kukri were set on a goodwill visit to foreign countries shortly.

Chairman-cum-managing director of the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Rear Admiral R B Vohro urged the Centre to give more orders to utilise the idle capacity of the builders.

Noted among others present in the commissioning ceremony included rear admiral Sanjeev Kapoor, assistant controller of warship production and acquisition, New Delhi, and a Chinese naval attache.