VASCO: The Goa Shipyard Built offshore patrol vessel was commissioned into the Indian Coast Union by Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman, on Thursday. 

The ceremony was held at the vessel yard of the Goa Shipyard. The ship has been named ‘Sachet’ and is one of the five ships built by GSL for the Coast Guard. 

On the occasion, Seetharaman was all praises for the Goa Shipyard for having completed the job.”Prime minister wants to see India as a hub for defence manufacturing and the GSL has proven its worth. You can do much better,” the defence minister said. 

“There should be a market of competition. Everywhere there is request and interest is shown to buy what otherwise they would have bought from the West. I commend the GSL for exporting some of the ships too,” the minister said. 

She also said that the GSL has immense possibilities as she mentioned that GSL has proven its worth and has further assured to do all that is possible to give the due orders and keep GSL busy. 

The minister also advised the management of GSL to devise a plan themselves to work with the Defence Ministry to ensure that their product is accessible to all. 

“You are capable of doing more and now can you start looking at global markets too?” the Defence Minister asked. The project was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2016.

With an overall length of 105 metres, the ship has a displacement of 2,350 tonnes at full load. The Ship will have endurance of 6,000 nautical miles.

A team of 14 officers will be commanding the Ship with total crew of 133 personnel. The ship is capable of taking mission in all weather condition: the primary function of patrolling and policing of Indian Economic Zone.

Others present on the occasion include North Goa MP Shripad Naik, Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar, Coast Guard Chief and CMD of Goa Shipyard.