Diving Support Craft launch marked the delivery of DSC A24, the fifth and final ship of a five vessel Indian Navy programme, at Titagarh Rail Systems Limited's Kolkata yard on Friday. Mrs Kamal Singh launched the vessel in the presence of Vice Adm Gurcharan Singh, Chief of Personnel, with full naval traditions and ceremonial splendour.

Senior officials from the Indian Navy and TRSL attended the event at Yard 329.


A catamaran hull built for diving work

DSC A24 carries a catamaran hull form and displaces somewhere in the 300 to 400 tonne range, according to the Ministry of Defence. That hull shape gives the craft superior stability, a larger deck area and improved sea keeping compared with a monohull of similar size, qualities the Navy considers well suited to diving operations close to shore.

The ship was designed and built to the Naval Rules and Regulations of the Indian Register of Shipping.

What the class adds to the fleet

With all five ships in hand, the Navy's capabilities in diving support, underwater inspection, salvage assistance and coastal operational deployment will be augmented, the release said.

A role built around clearance diving teams

Diving support craft of this size are typically tasked with backing Command Clearance Diving Teams on underwater work in and around harbours, including inspection, maintenance and salvage, work this Diving Support Craft launch now extends to a fifth hull. IDW covered a related delivery last month when the diving support vessel Nipun joined the fleet from a different yard.

Titagarh completes an order five years after it was signed

The Indian Navy placed the five ship order with Titagarh Rail Systems Limited in February 2021, worth roughly Rs 175 crore. The lead ship, DSC A20, was delivered in September 2025 and commissioned at Kochi that December. A24 closes it out.

The underwater systems fitted to the class were tested at the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, a DRDO establishment, before induction. Each craft is designed with a two man recompression chamber for treating diving casualties at sea. It follows a pattern of small-craft launch ceremonies IDW has tracked closely this year, including the launch of the anti-submarine warfare craft Machilipatnam at a different public sector yard.

Diving Support Craft launch reinforces the Aatmanirbhar Bharat push

Roughly 70 percent of the main and auxiliary equipment fitted to the Diving Support Craft is sourced from indigenous manufacturers, the Ministry of Defence said, calling the class a flag bearer of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and the wider Make in India push in shipbuilding, a theme that also ran through the recent commissioning of INS Malvan at Karwar.

TRSL's naval work has grown out of a heavy engineering business built primarily on rail and metro manufacturing.