Built In Kolkata: Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat Story In Steel
Built In Kolkata: Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat Story In Steel Written By, Last Updated: June 21, 2026, 15:22 IST Three warships sliding into commission on the
Built In Kolkata: Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat Story In Steel Written By, Last Updated: June 21, 2026, 15:22 IST Three warships sliding into commission on the Hooghly matter because of what they are built to do Rapid Read PM Narendra Modi during the tri-commissioning ceremony of INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak and INS Agray. (YT) Today, on June 21, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood on the banks of the Hooghly in Kolkata and commissioned three Indian Navy warships built entirely on Indian soil. The Indian Navy inducted three indigenously built frontline platforms, Dunagiri, Sanshodhak, and Agray, at Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, the public sector yard that built all three vessels from keel to commissioning. This was not a routine handover. It landed at a moment when the Navy’s underwater and surveillance gaps in the Indian Ocean have become a strategic worry. Three ships, three jobs Dunagiri The Navy ordered seven Project 17A frigates, four from Mazagon Dock and three from GRSE. Dunagiri is the fifth one out, the second built at Garden Reach. Six of the seven frigates have now been delivered. The seventh, Vindhyagiri, is due in 2027. It carries BrahMos missiles and the Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile system, so it can hit ships and shoot down incoming aircraft or missiles. The Navy has already signed off on a follow-up class, Project 17B, worth around Rs 70,000 crore, bigger frigates with more firepower once this batch wraps up. Sanshodhak is the fourth and last ship in the Survey Vessel (Large) class. GRSE signed the contract for all four back in 2018. The other three, Sandhayak, Nirdeshak and Ikshak, are already in service. This one finishes the order. Its job is mapping ports, channels and the deep ocean floor, using underwater vehicles and sonar gear.
Although less visible than a frontline combatant, the capability is strategically significant. Agray is the fifth of eight Arnala-class anti-submarine boats GRSE is building, a contract worth a bit over Rs 6,300 crore. Three vessels remain under construction, and the last one, Ajay, is already launched. Cochin Shipyard is building eight more of a similar type, the Mahe class, so the Navy ends up with sixteen of these in total. Agray is built for shallow water, armed with torpedoes, anti-submarine rockets and sonar. Why the Navy needs these ships now China has had more submarines moving through the Indian Ocean over the past decade, and the Navy has had to adjust to that. Tracking what’s happening underwater is now treated as seriously as tracking what’s on the surface, as Chinese deployments in the region keep growing. Agray is built for that job, working shallow coastal waters with the sonar and torpedoes needed to find and hit a submarine close to shore, an area the Navy has been thin on for years. The seabed itself has become contested terrain. Chinese survey and research vessels have been actively mapping the Indian Ocean’s undersea terrain, a deployment New Delhi reads as part of Beijing’s effort to sharpen its own oceanographic and submarine intelligence picture. A hydrographic vessel like Sanshodhak helps India build an independent picture of its own waters and contested approaches. Knowing the ocean floor better than a rival is now part of undersea deterrence, not a side benefit of it. Sea lane security adds a third pressure point. India’s surveillance push, including a separate plan to expand its long-range P-8I patrol fleet, reflects growing concern inside the Navy over submarine activity, maritime competition, and surveillance gaps across the wider Indo-Pacific, with officials concluding that persistent maritime domain awareness has become indispensable rather than optional.
The BriefWire