Surat: Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will launch two frontline warships at sea from Mazagon in Mumbai on May 17. While one has been christened 'INS Surat', the other warship is named INS Udaygiri. Built under the Navy's 15-B ship project, INS Surat, the stealth-guided missile destroyer, weighs 7400 tonnes. It is set to be stationed in Visakhapatnam. According to the Ministry of Defence, Surat is the last ship to be produced in the Visakhapatnam class.
INS Udaygiri, meanwhile, is a Project 17A frigate. It is the third warship in the 17A class and is named after a mountain range in Andhra Pradesh. It is a follow-on of the P17 Shivalik class of Frigates. This is a reincarnated version of the 'Udaygiri', which was deployed between 1976 and 2007.
In the 15B class, the first three warships were named INS Visakhapatnam, INS Pradeep, and INS Imphal respectively. INS Surat was being built by Mazagon Dockyard Limited, a Government of India company on July 19, 2018. Surat is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi tweeted out the information on Sunday, saying "Surat has been an important contributor to the development of Gujarat.
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Surat's diamond and textile market is famous all over the world. The Indian Navy's warship has been named INS - Surat in recognition of this unprecedented contribution of Surat."
