Garden Reach Shipbuilders signs contract for construction of two coastal research vessels

Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers on Wednesday, June 11, informed exchanges that it has signed a contract with Geological Survey of India (GSI) for construction of two Coastal Research Vessels (CRVs).

"Each CRV will have a length of 64 meters with a width of 12 meters. The deadweight tonnage of each CRV will be about 450 Tons. The vessels will have an endurance of 15 days with a top speed of 10 knots. Each ship will have facilities for 35 personnel on board," the company said.

"These specialised vessels will have capabilities to carry out offshore geological mapping, mineral exploration (including dredging), ocean environment monitoring and research. The ships will have modern, well-equipped scientific laboratories on board for data processing and sample analysis," GRSE added.

At the moment, the shipyard is building 16 warships of four different classes for the Navy. GRSE has also emerged as the lowest bidder for the Navy’s Next Generation Corvettes (NGC) programme and expects to be awarded the contract to build five of these vessels.

GRSE is also building eight multi-purpose cargo vessels for a German company.

“Though GRSE’s mainstay is warship building, the shipyard is also an expert in the construction of research vessels. In 1994, it delivered the marine acoustic research ship INS Sagardhwani to NPOL. Between 1981 and 1993, GRSE also delivered six survey vessels to the Navy. Over the last two years, the shipyard also delivered two Survey Vessels (Large) of the Sandhayak class to the Navy. Two more ships of this class are currently under construction at GRSE. These survey vessels are the largest and the most advanced of their class ever built in India,” GRSE added.

GRSE shares have massively outperformed the benchmarks so far this year as the stock has surged nearly 100% from its closing price of ₹1,617 on December 31, data from BSE showed.

Since the commencement of Operation Sindoor, when all the defence shares came under buying interest, GRSE shares have rallied 80%.