In news- Indian Navy’s oldest hydrographic survey ship INS Sandhayak was decommissioned at Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.
More information-
- INS Sandhayak is Indian Navy’s fifth hydrographic survey ship in the series indigenously designed and constructed.
- The ship was commissioned to the Indian Navy on February 26, 1981.
- The vessel was conceptualised by Rear Admiral F.L. Fraser, the then Chief Hydrographer to the government.
- It operated as a hydrographic survey ship in the Indian Navy, under the Eastern Naval Command.
- It was equipped with a helicopter and Bofors 40 mm gun for self defence, four survey motor boats and two small boats.
- Hydrographic vessels carry out surveys related to measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, offshore oil exploration and related activities.
- It was an active participant in many significant operations such as Operation Pawan (assisting the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1987) and Operation Rainbow (rendering humanitarian assistance post Tsunami of 2004).
- It also participated in the maiden joint INDO-US HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief) exercise ‘Tiger-Triumph’ in 2019.
- It served for 40 years and undertook over 200 major hydrographic surveys in Western and Eastern coasts of the Indian peninsula, the Andaman Sea, and minor surveys in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Source: TOI
