NEW DELHI (The Thursday Times) — India has cleared a project worth more than Rs40,000 crore (about $4.5 billion) to build eight next-generation stealth corvettes for its navy, adding a new class of fast, multirole warships for operations across the Indian Ocean.
The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the programme this week, The Indian Express reported. A contract is expected to be signed soon with state-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers in Kolkata and Goa Shipyard Limited; industry reports say GRSE will build five of the ships and Goa Shipyard three.
The corvettes, built to an indigenous navy design, will reach speeds of about 30 knots and are meant for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, and coastal defence. Deliveries are expected to begin by 2030.
They will join the navy’s four Kamorta-class corvettes, which are mainly geared to hunting submarines, and are intended to take pressure off larger frontline destroyers and frigates. The Defence Acquisition Council first cleared the project in June 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs36,000 crore.
The approval is the latest in a run of big-ticket naval orders as New Delhi expands its surface fleet, with the navy looking to project power across the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.
