Mumbai: The fire on INS Matanga took place when the private company that was carrying out steel welding works in the Sewage Treatment Plant compartment of the boat, noticed the “insulating material in the adjacent compartment started smouldering and emitting thick smoke,” said a statement from the Indian Navy.
The onboard duty personnel, the boat’s crew and fire crew from the naval dockyard’s fire station doused the flames in a matter of a few minutes.
The INS Matanga was built at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers at Kolkata on October 29, 1977 and commissioned April 3, 1983.
The 67.8-metre long boat has a maximum speed of 15 knots, a range of 4,000 nautical miles and has a crew of 75, which includes six officers. It can be used for diving operations as it carries a “recompression chamber” and also be used for offshore firefighting. It can also be employed for a “limited” amount of submarine rescue operations.
