Indian Navy Needs More Shipyards to Build Vessels – Admiral Mehta.

The Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta has called for setting up of more green field projects to build vessels, in order to strengthen the Indian Navy.

Addressing a news conference after the conclusion of a two-day Naval Commanders’ Conference in Mumbai, Admiral Mehta said “The Ministry of Shipping is setting up one ship building yard on each of the two coasts. The Navy too needs ship building yards as the capacity of the existing yards like Mazgaon Docks Ltd is limited.”

Elaborating about the needs of the Navy, the Admiral said “ideally, the country needs two operational aircraft carriers and other ships. Efforts are on to have three aircraft carriers in the fleet while 34 ships and six submarines are already being constructed to take the total number of ships to 160.” The indigenous carrier building project at Cochin is on schedule and the first ship is expected in 2012.

The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (re-christened as Vikramaditya) is currently undergoing refurbishment and the project was delayed due to cost escalation factors. It is expected to be delivered within three years.

Net News Publisher