On 21 December, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) laid the keel for the fifth of eight coastal ASW corvettes known as Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASWSWC).
Crucially, this fifth hull is the first ASWSWC corvette built by GRSE at its premises, because the first four are being constructed under a public-private partnership by Larsen & Toubro Shipbuilding (LTSB) near Chennai.
Speaking at the keel-laying ceremony, Vipin K Saxena, GRSE chairman and MD, said that his company commenced production of the fifth hull in May.
To reduce build times, Saxena explained that ‘integrated construction’ methods have been fully