Defence PSU Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Ltd on Saturday signed an agreement with Germany-based Carsten Rehder Schiffsmakler and Reederei GmbH & Co. KG to construct and deliver four multi-purpose vessels at a cost of approximately $45 million.
The GRSE said in a statement to the media that it will execute the contract in 33 months, with an option of building another four ships soon.
The vessels will be 120 metres long and 17 metres wide, with a maximum draft of 6.75 metres. Each will have a carrying capacity of 7,500 metric tonnes of load and a single cargo hold to accommodate bulk, general, and project cargoes, the GRSE informed.
The ships have been specifically designed to carry multiple large windmill blades on deck, and containers will be carried on hatch covers.
GRSE’s Director (Shipbuilding) Shantanu Bose, a retired Commodore of the Indian Navy, and Carsten Rehder Schiffsmakler and Reederei GmBH & Co’s Managing Director Carsten Thomas Rehder signed the contract on Saturday. Commodore PR Hari, Indian Navy (Retd.), Chairman & Managing Director of the GRSE, and his other colleagues were present at the function.
The government has been pushing for exports of defence products, with the volume crossing an all-time high of ₹21,000 crore. The shipyard is currently working on six patrol boats and a TSH dredger for the government of Bangladesh.
For the first time, the GRSE exported the offshore patrol vessel CGS Barracuda to Mauritius in 2014. Later, in 2021, the GRSE-built fast patrol vessel PS Zoroaster was exported to the Seychelles. The ship returned to the GRSE earlier this year for a refit that was completed in record time, the GRSE stated.
In 2023, the DPSU delivered the MV Ma Lisha, a passenger-cum-cargo ocean-going ferry, to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. It is the largest and most advanced ferry in that country now, the company stated.
It has built over 790 platforms so far, including 109 warships for the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, and friendly foreign countries—the highest number of warships built and delivered by any Indian shipyard to date.