Keels laid for Indian Navy's first ASWSWC and third large survey vessel

Indian public-sector company Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) announced on 6 August that it has laid the keels for the first of eight anti-submarine warfare shallow-water craft (ASWSWCs) as well as for the third of four large survey vessels for the Indian Navy (IN).

Few details were provided, but the company said in a statement that the keels were laid in a ceremony that was attended by Vice Chief of Naval Staff Admiral S N Ghormade via video conference.

In a separate statement, the IN said that both vessel types are being “partly built” under a public-private partnership (PPP) between GRSE and Larsen & Toubro's (L&T's) shipyard at Kattupalli in southern India.

The 110 m-long survey vessel is one of four of the class being built as part of a INR24.35 billion (USD328 million) contract awarded to GRSE in October 2018 under the IN's Survey Vessel Large (SVL) programme. The first ship was laid down on 8 November 2019 and the second on 1 December 2020.

The 3,300-tonne vessels, each of which is to be operated by a crew of 231, will be fitted with advanced equipment and sensors to enable them to conduct “full-scale coastal and deep-water hydrographic surveys of ports and harbours and approaches and determination of navigational channels and routes”, according to the Indian government's Press Information Bureau.

GRSE added that these ships, which have been designed for a cruising speed of 16 kt, are powered by two marine diesel engines and feature bow-and-stern thrusters for manoeuvring at low speeds during surveys.