INS Sandhayak, the navy’s first indigenously designed and built Hydrographic Survey Ship, will be decommissioned on Friday, 04 Jun 2021 after serving for 40 years. The decommissioning ceremony of INS Sandhayak will be held at Naval Dockyard, Vizag.
Sandhayak was the brain child of Chief Hydrographer, Rear Admiral FL Fraser, who badly wanted indigenously designed and built hydrographic survey vessels in India. The Sandhayak’s design was finalised by Naval Headquarters and construction began at GRSE Kolkata (then Calcutta) with the keel laying in 1978.
The ship was commissioned on 26 Feb 1981. Since commissioning, she has been the alma mater of Indian Navy hydrographers, and has laid the foundation of complete hydrographic coverage of the peninsular waters.
The ship has undertaken some 200 major hydrographic surveys and numerous minor surveys in both East and West coasts of the country, the Andaman seas and in neighbouring countries. The ship has been an active participant in many significant operations such as Op Pawan – assisting the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1987, Op Sarong, Op Rainbow - rendering humanitarian assistance post Tsunami of 2004 and participation in Exercise Tiger Triumph – the maiden US-India joint exercise.
In its 40 years of service, the ship had 22 commanding officers at the helm. At sunset on Friday, the Naval Ensign and the Commissioning Pennant will be hauled down for the last time onboard INS Sandhayak.
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