Chennai: Larsen and Toubro added yet another plume to its cap launching the fourth offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for the Coast Guard here on Friday. L&T has so far delivered 45 defence vessels to the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, all of them designed in-house at its Warship Design Centre. The OPV delivered now to the ICG was built under a contract signed with the Defence Ministry in 2015 for the delivery of seven OPVs. L&T delivered the first OPV in April this year and followed that up with second and third handed over in August. The OPVs are meant for day-night patrolling, surveillance and for providing coastal security.
L&T managing director and chief executive officer S N Subrahmanyan said, “Timely deployment of defence vessels has assumed greater significance for the nation in the current geopolitical situation.” In a press statement, he said: “L&T has consistently outperformed in all defence shipbuilding contracts hitherto and is poised to play a bigger role in equipping the Navy and Coast Guard”. Managing director and CEO of L&T Shipbuilding vice-admiral B Kannan said, "L&T is fully geared to meet accelerated delivery of defence ships in line with the requirements of the fleet expansion plans of Indian Navy and Coast Guard”.
