Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers  a major Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, delivered the largest-ever hydrographic survey vessel to be built in India, “INS Sandhayak”, to the Indian Navy on 4th December 2023. The vessel was built under the classification of the Indian Register of Shipping and is the ‘first of class’ in a series of four such vessels being built by GRSE for the Navy. INS Sandhayak reincarnates an earlier ship bearing the same name, which was also the ‘first of class’ of a series of survey vessels built for the Navy by GRSE, and which was decommissioned in June 2021.

The present INS Sandhayak is fully designed by GRSE. The ship is capable of carrying out full-scale coastal and deep-water hydrographic survey of port and harbour approaches, as well as determination of navigation channels and routes. Sandhayak class vessels can also undertake research functions involving surveys of maritime limits and collection of oceanographic and geographical data for defence applications, which add strength to India’s maritime capabilities. These ships can have a helicopter embarked, are designed for conducting low-intensity combat operations, and can also function as hospital ships, as well as participate in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.

On this occasion, the Certificate of Class issued by IRS was handed over to Commodore P R Hari (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director, GRSE by the Regional Manager (East Coast of India & Bangladesh), Mr. Saikat Roychowdhury. The latter attributed the successful delivery to close teamwork and synergy between GRSE and IRS teams, even under challenging circumstances. The fact that the GRSE-IRS teams continued to perform even during the pandemic times to ensure that India gets its first ever survey vessel of this size at the earliest, is truly a commendable feat.

Cdr KK Dhawan (Retd), Head Defence, stated that IRS is committed to support the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ call given by Hon’ble Prime Minister. Keeping this in mind, IRS is extending full support to GRSE, who are concurrently building several strategically significant warships for the Indian Navy, including eight Shallow Water Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvettes and four Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels, all under IRS class.”