Indian Navy tri commissioning: PM Modi inducts Dunagiri, Sanshodhak and Agray at Kolkata

The Indian Navy tri commissioning at Kolkata on Sunday brought three warships into service on a single day, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioning INS Agray, INS Dunagiri and INS Sanshodhak at the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port.

All three were built in India and designed in India. Each ship came out of a separate programme, and each one set a record of its own.

What the Indian Navy tri commissioning put in the water

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, who hosted the ceremony, said the three platforms had each set new records. INS Dunagiri is the fifth ship of the Project 17A frigate line and carries the latest combat fit. Adm Krishna Swaminathan said it came together in roughly 33 percent less time than the previous frigate programme.

INS Sanshodhak is the fourth survey vessel of the Sandhayak class.

Its commissioning fell on World Hydrography Day, marked every year on June 21, a timing the Navy chief flagged from the dais. The ship carries hydrographic equipment that the Navy expects to put to work alongside partner nations, supporting their maritime economies and the Prime Minister's MAHASAGAR vision for the region.

INS Agray is the fourth Arnala class anti submarine warfare shallow water craft. Adm Krishna Swaminathan held it up as a working example of public private partnership, with part of the class being built at a private shipyard. That split, he said, makes better use of the yards the country has and cuts the time taken to build each hull.

Capt Divya Alok commands INS Dunagiri. Cdr Sunil Malpotra is leading INS Agray, and Capt Kuldeep Singh is the Commanding Officer of INS Sanshodhak.

PM Modi frames the day around Aatmanirbhar Bharat

PM Modi tied the day to three themes he returns to often, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Surakshit Bharat and Viksit Bharat. India no longer wants to stay only a buyer of defence equipment, he told the gathering. The country wants to build, he said, and the day it turns manufacturer it also turns decision maker.

No country becomes a great power without strength at sea, PM Modi said early in his remarks, putting trade, security and prosperity in the same frame. Most of the world's trade moves by sea, the data cables that link continents run under the oceans, and the next round of critical minerals, deep sea resources and energy will be drawn from the water as well.

He put numbers to it.

More than 40 Made in India warships and submarines have entered the Navy in recent years, the Prime Minister said, with another 45 major platforms now under construction. He read that as a marker of where Indian industry stands. More than 200 MSMEs worked on the three ships handed over on Sunday.

He reached back to INS Vikrant, which India dedicated to the nation a few years ago, as the point where the country announced a new chapter at sea. The maritime sector, he argued, can throw up millions of jobs, because a single modern ship pulls in hundreds of tonnes of steel, electronics, machinery and thousands of smaller components, and behind each of those sits a chain of companies and the people they employ.

The government has cleared an incentive package of Rs 70,000 crore for the shipping sector. PM Modi called it money put into the country's maritime future, and he grouped shipbuilding, ship repair, ship recycling and MRO work as one national effort. Port modernisation and the Sagarmala programme came up alongside.

The production and export numbers

On defence output, PM Modi said the figure stood near Rs 40,000 crore until 2014 and has climbed to close to Rs 1,80,000 crore now. Exports have moved from about Rs 700 crore to nearly Rs 40,000 crore over the same stretch, he said, and Indian made equipment now reaches more than 80 countries, a list he said keeps growing.

He called the gains of the past twelve years a beginning, not a finish.

A second tri commissioning in seventeen months

Adm Krishna Swaminathan reminded the audience that the Indian Navy tri commissioning was the country's second, seventeen months after the first, which PM Modi presided over at Mumbai. He thanked the Navy's warship overseeing teams, the trial agencies and the builders, industry partners and MSMEs behind the work. Veterans who had served on the older Dunagiri and Agray sat in the audience.

The three ships were built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers in Kolkata, a yard the Navy chief described as a long standing partner. Adm Krishna Swaminathan put the achievement in his own phrase, calling it a move from concept to commissioning, and credited the Ministry of Defence and the West Bengal government for clearing the path.

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh marked the day on social media. The three platforms show the strength of India's defence manufacturing base and the country's resolve on Aatmanirbhar Bharat, he wrote, adding that the ships now stand ready to protect national interests and keep the Indian Ocean secure.

https://x.com/rajnathsingh/status/2068561654959534173

Bengal's place in the day

The port that hosted the ceremony carries the name of Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee, the country's first Industry Minister. Governor R.N. Ravi and Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari shared the dais with PM Modi and the Navy chief.

PM Modi used the Kolkata setting to make a pitch for West Bengal in the maritime economy. He pointed to the state's port capacity, its industry and its skilled workforce, and named the Blue Economy, maritime manufacturing, logistics and coastal development as the areas where he wants Bengal to take a bigger role.