Goa Shipyard to build 12 patrol boats for Pangong deployment

New Delhi: Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) has bagged the Rs 65-crore contract to build 12 anti-ramming patrol boats that may be deployed at Pangong Lake in Ladakh to thwart Chinese aggression.

The PSU is anticipated to roll out the patrol boats by May 2021, by when snow would have melted on the lake and a face-off between India and China troops may resume.

The Defence sector Public Sector Undertaking may even perform upkeep of those boats for 4 years.

Goa Shipyard Limited is led by its Chairman, Commodore Bharat Bhushan Nagpal (retd), and has an worker power of 1,472, together with 240 officers, 177 supervisors, and 919 staff.

There has been no breakthrough within the stand-off in Ladakh regardless of eight rounds of talks between the army commanders of the 2 armies.

“The Indian Army has inked a contract with Goa Shipyard Limited for 12 fast patrol boats for surveillance and patrol of large water bodies, including those in high altitude areas. Their delivery will commence from May 2021,” the Indian Army mentioned in a tweet.

These indigenous boats will accommodate extra troops for patrols on the lake, the place China has recently laid claims to Indian territory, main to a tense scenario on the (*12*) (LAC).

Pangong Tso’s 134-km size is split into eight ‘fingers’, a army parlance for mountain spurs jutting into the water physique which are contested by each side.

The lake is frozen with the onset of winters, and the Army plans to deploy round two dozen such boats by subsequent summer time.

The Indian Army had been wanting for boats with robust capabilities to thwart Chinese incursions into the lake, and made a requisition for such vessels and consulted the Indian Navy.

The Navy got here up with the design and gave technical recommendation to the producer, retaining in thoughts the capabilities wanted on the peak of 14,000 toes above the imply sea stage.

These boats can accommodate 25 to 30 troopers (as well as to troops who perform foot patrols) together with ample numbers of arms and ammunition and have higher capabilities than Chinese boats deployed within the lake.

The Indian boats have high-speed capabilities to thwart Chinese incursions into the lake space.

The want to improve the Indian boats at Pangong Lake was felt within the wake of army stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops on the Line of Actual Control in japanese Ladakh from early May.

India claims that the LAC lies at Finger 8 on the Pangong Lake and has been holding on to the realm until Finger 4. However, in a transparent alteration of the established order, the Chinese troops have been tenting at Finger 4 and even arrange fortifications between Fingers 5 and eight.

There have been common face-offs between the 2 armies between Fingers 4 and eight, a distance of eight km, on the northern financial institution of the lake.

Confrontations started within the Pangong Lake space — each within the water and its financial institution — after the Chinese incursions modified LAC established order there.

Now, India and China are engaged in a nine-month-long stand-off on the LAC in japanese Ladakh. Despite dialogues at numerous ranges, there has not been any breakthrough.