Overview
- Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd held a keel‑laying for Yard 16404, the fourth of six Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Indian Coast Guard, on Thursday in Mumbai.
- The six‑ship contract was signed on December 20, 2023, and the programme is currently in the hull construction phase with launching, outfitting, trials and commissioning still to come.
- Officials said MDL is designing, developing and building the vessels indigenously under the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat policy to boost domestic defence production.
- The NGOPV class is described by the defence ministry as fitted with modern machinery and state‑of‑the‑art onboard systems intended to strengthen the Coast Guard’s patrol, surveillance and coastal security roles.
- Keel laying is a formal shipbuilding milestone that marks the start of major hull assembly and shows programme momentum that could speed delivery of capability and sustain shipyard jobs and supply‑chain work.