INS Arihant sea trials begin

VISAKHAPATNAM: The country’s first indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant tested the waters on Monday with Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar flagging of its first sea trials from the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) base here. The vessel’s sea acceptance trails (SATs) became a reality almost 18 months after it passed its harbour acceptance trails (HATs) at the ENC’s ship building centre (SBC).
The 6,000-tonne vessel, with an 83MW pressurised light water reactor at its core for propulsion, was visible in the waters off the Vizag coast when it was coming out from the Vizag Port Trust channel, guarded by a Navy chopper, at around 10.00 am. Sources said the vessel sailed from SBC to the Naval Dockyard first and then ventured into the open sea.
Though no official statement was issued either by the Indian Navy or the Prime Minister’s Office about the commencement of sea trials on INS Arihant, sources said that the defence minister was present on the occasion at the SBC jetty along with Navy chief RK Dhowan, scientific advisor to defence ministry, Avinash Chander, and scientists from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, including its chairman RK Sinha and director Sekhar Basu.
According to sources, the Union minister, who landed in the Port City early on Monday morning, was welcomed by the Naval authorities at INS Dega and reached the SBC directly to flag off the submarine. Later he inspected the guard of honour presented by the ENC personnel at the Naval base. The defence minister left for Delhi before noon.
During the flagging-off ceremony, he appreciated the efforts put in by those involved in the construction of the nuclear submarine and urged the Indian Navy personnel to work towards adapting to changing technologies, sources said.
The defence minister reportedly said that the much awaited milestone has become a reality after almost 16 years putting India in the league of elite nations that have developed their own nuclear submarines. The authorities concerned and the Indian Navy kept the ceremony a hush-hush affair with everything being directly monitored by the PMO, so much so that even those involved in the construction were denied entry to the flagging-off ceremony.
“Only a few high ranking officials were invited for the programme,” a Navy source said, pointing out that regular staffers of various wings in the SBC were asked to come for duty two hours early because the gates would be shut. Many employees expressed their unhappiness at not being given an opportunity to witness the historical event.