The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) for the construction of 2 Pollution Control Vessels (PCVs) for Indian Coast Guard (ICG) at a cost of about INR 583 crore. The ships will be indigenously designed, developed and built by GSL.
- The PCVs will help ICG to respond to oil spill disasters at sea and enhance Pollution Response (PR) efficiency. They will be used for pollution response requirements in Eastern and the ecologically sensitive Andaman & Nicobar Regions.
- The acquisition is taking place under ‘Buy Indian – Indigenously Designed Developed & Manufactured (Buy Indian-IDDM)’ category of Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 (DAP 2020) which is the highest priority category of defence capital procurements.
- The vessels will be delivered by November 2024 and May 2025 respectively.
Key Points
i.The 2 new vessels will have the capability of operating helicopters onboard and will be equipped with modern PR equipment for containing, recovering and dispersing marine oil spills.
ii.At present, ICG has 3 PCVs in its fleet at Mumbai (Maharashtra), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), and Porbandar (Gujarat) to carry out dedicated Pollution Surveillance, Oil spill monitoring/Response operations in Indian EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) and surrounding islands.
iii.The contract will boost the indigenous shipbuilding capability and increase employment opportunities in the shipbuilding sector which involves around 200 MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise) vendors. It will also support the Government’s vision of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
Recent Related News:
On December 14, 2020, Indian Coast Guard (ICG) launched the 5th & Final Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) ‘Saksham’ into water at Vasco da Gama, Goa. It is being built by Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) and is expected to be delivered to the ICG by October 2021.
About Ministry of Defence (MoD)
Union Minister – Rajnath Singh (Constituency – Lucknow, UP)
Minister of State (I/C) – Shripad Yesso Naik (Constituency – North Goa, Goa)
About Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL)
CMD – Commodore B.B. Nagpal
Headquarters – Vasco Da Gama, Goa
