Navy gets a pat for buyer-to-builder shift

Visakhapatnam: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has commissioned indigenously designed and made INS Kiltan, third anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette built at a colourful ceremony held at Naval Dockyard, here on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised that the Navy's relentless pursuit of self-reliance through indigenisation is highly appreciable and this has helped the Indian Navy to seamlessly transform from a buyer to a builder Navy.

She highlighted that the addition of INS Kiltan to the naval fleet is a reaffirmation of this transformation. "We need to benchmark our shipbuilding practices to international best practices and produce quality ships in a shorter time frame and at competitive costs," she said and added that the government appreciated the nation's defence requirements.

She assured that requisite finances for the Armed Forces and Defence industry would be made available for the modernisation and development plans of the Navy. She later unveiled the Commissioning Plaque and dedicated the ship to the nation.

The third of the four stealth corvettes built under Project 28 (Kamorta Class) was indigenously designed by the Indian Navy's in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design and constructed by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited, Kolkata.