Yet again another Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) ICGS Veera for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is commissioned ahead of time which has been built by Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) Kattupalli Yard.
The company has been building vessels under Warship License since receiving first Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract in March 2010, all the designing and construction is done in house and indigenously.
As part of the government’s ‘Act East’ policy, the company is also building High-Speed Patrol Vessels for a friendly Nation in the south-east region.
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In the case of ICGS Veera, as in other platforms, the built was on and ahead of the contractual schedule and 3rd OPV in the series of seven within a span of 11 months and the 11th platform delivered during the financial year 2018-19. And is built under an MoD contract of 2015.
On these vessels the percentage of completion of pre-outfitting has increased, reducing the overall cycle time, thus enabling to accelerated delivery of defence ships in line with the requirements of the fleet expansion plans of the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard.
As has been reported by the Financial Express Online earlier, the first two vessels ICGS Vikram and ICGS Vijaya was delivered ahead of contractual schedule to ICG last April and August respectively. Fourth of the series OPV was launched in Nov 2018 and is presently being readied for sea trials.
The company has so far made major investments for undertaking indigenous design, manufacturing and construction of advanced defence platforms and systems across multiple newly established work centres dedicated to the defence sector.
It has also undertaken to the upkeep of Indian Naval and Coast Guard fleets by carrying out repairs/refits and upgrades including emergency repairs and inspection using the 21500-ton class Ship Lift at the Yard.