India commissions indigenously built diving support vessel, to boost submarine rescue ops
NEW DELHI: India on Friday commissioned INS Nistar, its first indigenously designed and constructed diving support vessel, which can undertake complex deep-sea saturation diving and submarine rescue operations that only a few navies are capable of around the world.
The commissioning of the 118-metre-long specialised warship, with a displacement of around 10,000 tonnes and over 80% indigenous content, took place at
Visakhapatnam
in the presence of minister of state for defence Sanjay Seth and Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi. INS Nistar is the first of the two such vessels being built by Hindustan Shipyard Ltd at a cost of Rs 2,393 crore.
Seth lauded the Navy and the shipbuilding industry for consistently enhancing the indigenous content in warships through homegrown solutions and innovative technologies.
'At present, all the 57 warships in the pipeline are being constructed indigenously,' he said.
Admiral Tripathi, in turn, said: 'INS Nistar is not just a technological asset, but a crucial operational enabler. She will provide submarine rescue support to Navy as well as our regional partners. This will enable India to emerge as a 'preferred submarine rescue partner' in the region'.
Having state-of-the-art equipment like remotely operated vehicles, self-propelled hyperbaric lifeboats and diving compression chambers, INS Nistar can undertake deep sea saturation diving up to a depth of 300 metres. The vessel will also serve as 'mother ship' for deep submergence rescue vessels (DSRVs), which are basically mini-submarines that dive to 'mate'' with a disabled submarine to extricate sailors trapped deep underwater.
INS Nistar is also equipped with a combination of remotely operated vessels to undertake diver monitoring and salvage operations up to a depth of 1,000 metres.
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