GRSE Coastal Research Vessels reached a construction milestone on Tuesday, as Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers laid the keels for two vessels it is building for the Geological Survey of India, covering yard numbers 2137 and 2138. GRSE is a Navratna Defence Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, and the shipyard framed the ceremony as another step under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat push and the Make in India initiative, at a time when GRSE's order book already spans warships, patrol vessels and export platforms.

Smt Varsha Ashok Aglawe, the first woman to serve as Director General of GSI, was the chief guest at the event, attending in a year that has already seen several milestones for the survey agency. Senior officials from GRSE, GSI, TNSL and the Indian Register of Shipping also attended the ceremony.

A milestone before the hull takes shape

A keel is often compared to a spine, the structural member around which the rest of a vessel's frame is built up. The comparison is a common one in shipyards, and GRSE leaned on it too. Laying the keel is the point where design work on paper gives way to steel construction, and the shipyard said the two vessels' principal structural elements would now begin to take shape around this central component, a routine but closely watched stage in any shipbuilding programme.

Smt Aglawe linked the vessels to GSI's offshore mandate. "The two Coastal Research Vessels being constructed will prove to be extremely valuable in exploring our mineral resources beyond the country's land borders," she said, adding that the ships would play a pivotal role once commissioned. "This project aligns seamlessly with our national vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat at 2047 and achieving comprehensive self-reliance in the mineral sector," she said.


What the two GRSE Coastal Research Vessels will carry

Each vessel will be 64 metres long and 13 metres wide, with a deadweight tonnage of about 461 tonnes. They are designed for an endurance of 15 days at a top speed of 10 knots, with facilities for 35 personnel on board. Modern, well equipped scientific laboratories are planned on each ship for data processing and sample analysis while the crew is still at sea, rather than waiting for samples to be brought ashore.

Holding station far from shore

The ships are being built to carry out offshore geological mapping, mineral exploration including dredging, and ocean environment monitoring and research. A Dynamic Positioning 1 system, built to the rules of the Indian Register of Shipping, will let each vessel hold station even in Sea State 3, a level of chop that would otherwise complicate delicate survey work far from any sheltered coastline, where a drifting hull can ruin hours of seabed sampling and force a survey line to be run again from the start.

Diesel electric drive powers the thrusters that keep each CRV on station.

Cmde PR Hari, IN (Retd), CMD, GRSE, called the keel laying the point where planning turns into steel. "Marking the transformation of design and planning into the physical construction of the vessels," he said, adding that backed by strong collaboration among all stakeholders, GRSE was confident of delivering the two CRVs to GSI on schedule and to the highest quality standards.

GRSE's widening order book for specialised vessels

GRSE said the order reflected its track record in advanced, specialised vessels beyond conventional warship construction, and pointed to two other research platforms already under construction at its yards. The shipyard is separately building an Ocean Research Vessel for the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and an Acoustic Research Ship for the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, an establishment under the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Three decades of survey and research platforms

GRSE has built specialised research and survey platforms for decades, not just warships for the Indian Navy. It delivered two series of Sandhayak class survey vessels to the Navy, and the marine acoustic research ship INS Sagardhwani to NPOL back in 1994, when much of the instrumentation such vessels now carry was still new to Indian shipbuilding and largely imported. That history, GRSE said, underpins its current position as a designer and builder of this entire category of platform, spanning naval survey work, polar and ocean research, and now onshore mineral-linked offshore exploration for GSI.

The shipyard's wider order book has been active too. GRSE recently marked its elevation to Navratna status, and separately received a Notification of Award from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited for four Platform Supply Vessels. The GRSE Coastal Research Vessels now join that expanding mix of defence, scientific and commercial work at the Kolkata yard, ahead of outfitting and sea trials in the years to come.