INDIA. Mumbai: INS Nireekshak, a submarine rescue vessel, was awarded an “on-the-spot” unit citation by the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) during the visit of CNS Admiral R Harikumar to Kochi (Kerala) on Monday.
The CNS interacted with the diving team of the ship involved in the salvage operations at a depth of 219 meters in the Arabian Sea and commended the ship for the safe and successful conduct of the operations under the most challenging circumstances. An official statement read that this was the deepest salvage carried out in the country’s waters.
During his address to the ship’s crew, the CNS complimented the ship’s dedicated effort in conducting the deep diving operations. He exhorted the undaunted spirit of the “Men Behind the Machine.” The CNS awarded an “on the spot” unit citation to the ship, a first in the Indian Navy. He also awarded commendations to the crew involved in the salvage operation.
Nireekshak had recently completed a solemn dive at Diu, near the Gujarat coast, to pay homage by laying a wreath at 80 m depth at the resting site of the erstwhile Khukri, which sank during the 1971 war. The only Indian naval vessel lost in combat was the INS Khukri, a British-built anti-submarine warfare frigate.
INS Nireekshak is a dive support and submarine rescue vessel of the Indian Navy. She was initially built in 1985 by Mazagon Dock Limited, Mumbai, for the Oil and National Gas Corporation’s offshore oil exploration work, having a dynamic positioning facility and a recompression chamber. It was acquired on lease with an option for purchase by the Indian Navy on June 8, 1989, and was later commissioned in 1995.
The INS Nireekshak has taken part in many diving operations, and its dive to a depth of 257 m is the deepest dive ever done in the country.
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