Article Posted on : - Nov 05, 2018

CHENNAI (PTI): The fourth offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for the Coast Guard, built by Larsen and Toubro, was formally launched here Friday.

The vessel has been built by the company under a contract bagged from the Defence Ministry in 2015 for the delivery of seven OPVs. In April 2018, the first OPV was delivered followed by the second and the third in August.

Managing director and chief executive officer of the company SN Subrahmanyan said, "Timely deployment of defence vessels has assumed greater significance for the nation in the current geopolitical situation."

"L&T has consistently outperformed in all defence shipbuilding contracts hitherto and is poised to play a bigger role in equipping the Navy and Coast Guard...", he said in a press release.

Managing director and chief executive officer of L&T Shipbuilding vice-admiral B Kannan said, "L&T is fully geared to meet accelerated delivery of defence ships in line with the requirements of the fleet expansion plans of Indian Navy and Coast Guard".

L&T has so far delivered 45 defence vessels to the Navy and Coast Guard. All the vessels were designed in-house at the Warship Design Centre of the L&T.

The floating dock FDN-2 for the Navy, designed and built for the first time in the country, was delivered in March 2018 and is currently fully operational, the release said.

According to Coast Guard, the OPVs are meant for day and night patrol, surveillance and to provide coastal security.