Indian Navy ships Cheetah, Guldar and
Kumbhir were decommissioned on January 13th after rendering four decades of glorious
service to the nation. The
decommissioning event was conducted at Port Blair in a traditional ceremony
where the National Flag, the Naval Ensign and Decommissioning Pennants of the
three ships were lowered for the last time.
Cheetah, Guldar and Kumbhir were built at
Gdynia Shipyard, Poland as Polnocny class Landing Ships and were commissioned
into the Indian Navy in 1984, 1985 and 1986 respectively. The Commanding Officers of the three ships
were Cdr V B Mishra, Lt Cdr SK Singh and Lt Cdr J Banerjee respectively.
During their
initial years, Cheetah was based at Kochi and Chennai for brief periods, and
Kumbhir and Guldar at Visakhapatnam. The ships were subsequently re-based at
Andaman and Nicobar Command, where they served till their decommissioning.
These ships were in active Naval service
for nearly 40 years, and
collectively traversed about 17 lakh nautical miles whilst being at sea for
over 12,300 days. As the amphibian platforms of the Andaman and Nicobar
Command, these ships have conducted over 1300 beaching operations for landing
of army troops ashore.
During their
illustrious journeys, these ships participated in numerous maritime security
missions and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations. Notable amongst
them are their role during Operation Aman as part of IPKF operations and
Operation Tasha a joint operation carried out between Indian Navy and Indian
Coast Guard in May 1990 to control smuggling of arms and ammunition and illegal
immigration across Indian and Sri lankan border and made stellar contributions
in relief operations post 1997 cyclone off Sri Lanka and the 2004 Indian Ocean
Tsunami.
Indian Naval Ships Cheetah, Guldar and Kumbhir have left an indelible mark on the maritime landscape and their decommissioning marks the end of a significant chapter of the force’s history.
Air Marshal
SajuBalakrishnan, Commander-in-Chief
Andaman and Nicobar Command Vice Admiral
TarunSobti, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff,
Flag Officers, former Commanding Officers and commissioning crew of the three
ships attended the ceremonies. The event
was also unique since three warships of the same class were decommissioned
simultaneously on a single day.