Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, chief commanding flag officer of the western command of the Indian Navy, commissioned INS Tillanchang, the water jet fast attack craft at the Seabird naval base here on Thursday afternoon.

The indigenously built vessel will patrol the Karnataka sea coast and will be headquartered in the Karwar naval base. The craft has been named after Tillanchang, one of the islands in Andaman and Nicobar.

A total of 50 navy personnel, including officials, will work in the ship.
State-of-the-art weapons like MM CRN-91 gun, three heavy machine guns of 12.7 mm, besides medium and light machine guns will be part of the vessel.

The craft, built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata, has three heavy-duty water jet engines in the form of turbines. The ship will be captained by commander Adit Patnaik.

The ship will keep a vigil on infiltrators from the sea, smugglers, monitor the exclusive economic zone, besides involving in non-military activities like rescue efforts and disaster management.

 Speaking on the occasion, Karnataka flag officer Rear Admiral K J Kumar said the second phase of the Seabird project was under way and would be completed by 2021-22. Several fighter ships, submarines and aircraft carriers will make the naval base their home in future, Kumar said.

Vice Admiral Luthra told reporters that discussions were on to use the naval base for landing civilian aircraft. He announced that a central university would be set up here.

INS Tillanchang can carry materials up to 320 tonnes. With a length of 48.9 metres and breadth of 7.7 metres, the ship can travel at a speed of up to 35 nautical miles (50 km) per hour.