Fast patrol vessels (FPV) Achook and Agrim, forming part of a series of 20 FPVs being built by the Cochin Shipyard for the Coast Guard, were launched on Friday.
The vessels were launched by spouses of CSL’s Director (Finance) Ravikumar Roddam and Director (Technical) P. Vinayakumar. Senior CSL officials and Coast Guard officers attended the ceremony.
The FPVs are the fifth and the sixth in the series to be launched by the yard. The CSL had earlier handed over two FPVs to the Coast Guard. The third, it is understood, would be delivered to the force in the end of December. The contract for building the FPVs was signed in 2010 with the delivery of the last FPV scheduled to take place in 2017. Built under the dual classification requirements of ABS and IRS, the 50 metre-long vessels are capable of attaining a cruising speed of 33 knots. In a media release, the CSL said the vessels would be deployed for fisheries protection and monitoring, patrol within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), coastal patrol, anti-smuggling, search and rescue operations and anti-piracy operations. They had a secondary role of providing communication link and escort convoys during hostilities and wartime, it said.
