Mumbai: Indian Naval Ships (INS) Karwar and Kakinada were on Tuesday decommissioned at a ceremony held at the naval dockyard, in the presence of Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, who was the second Commanding Officer of Kakinada .
An Indian Navy spokesperson said INS Karwar (M67) was the first of the Natya class minesweepers acquired from the erstwhile USSR. “She was commissioned on July 14, 1986, at Riga in Russia under Commander R.K. Sinha. The ship operated in Vishakhapatnam till 2013 after which she was based in Mumbai and manned by a crew of six officers and 90 sailors with Cdr Kaushik Dhar as the last Commanding Officer.
INS Kakinada (M70) was the second of the class and also commissioned at Riga on December 23, 1986. Like her sister ship, INS Kakinada operated in Vishakhapatnam till 2013 before shifting base port to Mumbai. Her first Commanding Officer, then Lieutenant Commander Satish Soni, rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and retired as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Easter Naval Command in 2016. Commander Amarjit Singh Yumnam, the last Commanding Officer, and her crew, bid an emotional farewell to INS Kakinada .
“Both ships have rendered over 30 years of service to the nation. The ships have undertaken countless mine-sweeping missions using mechanical sweeps and modern side-scan sonars,” the spokesperson said.
