Indian Navy delivering Mauritius ship after carrying out refit in Visakhapatnam on Monday
Visakhapatnam: In line with the Indian Navy’s diplomatic role towards furthering outreach to friendly foreign navies in the Indian Ocean region, a three-and-a-half-month maiden refit of Mauritius Coast Guard Ship (MCGS) Victory has been successfully completed and delivered to Mauritius Police Force.
The vessel was delivered by Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command at a formal ceremony held here on Monday. Commissioner, Mauritius Police Force Anil Kumar Dip, who was leading a delegation for MILAN-2024 was the guest of honour for the ceremony. He was presented with a 50-men ceremonial guard followed by a walk-round onboard MCGS Victory. He also interacted with service and civilian personnel of the Eastern Naval Command including the technical experts of Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam, who were involved in undertaking the refit.
MCGS Victory is a Sarojini Naidu Class Fast Patrol Vessel constructed at Goa Shipyard Limited and handed over to the Mauritius Coast Guard in 2016. The ship is designed for multirole operations including coastal patrol, anti-piracy, anti-smuggling, anti-drug surveillance, anti-poaching and search and rescue operations.
The refit was undertaken at the Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam between October 15, 2023 to January 31, 2024 and entailed extensive maintenance and repairs on various ship-fit equipment related to the ship’s hull, engineering, electrical and weapon systems. After the repairs were completed, the trials and testing of all equipment and systems were undertaken both at harbour and at sea, a naval press release stated.
Thereafter, Indian Naval Training Teams imparted maintenance and operational training to the crew. The ultimate aim of the refit to ensure that MCGS Victory was prepared in the best possible state ‘to Float’ ‘to Move’ and ‘to fight’ was achieved within highly stringent timelines and to high-quality standards which enabled the ship to participate in the multilateral naval exercise MILAN 2024 being held in the Bay of Bengal, the release informed.
