INS Varsha, an

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usu ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

state under Project Varsha to house India's nuclear submarine fleet, is being developed and expanded in phases at Rambilli south of

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

, the headquarters of the navy's

Eastern Naval Command The Eastern Naval Command is one of the three command-level formations of the Indian Navy. It is headquartered in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The command is responsible for the all naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and parts of the Indian Ocea ...

. While the crew belongs to the Indian Navy, operational control resides with the

Strategic Forces Command The Strategic Forces Command (SFC), sometimes called Strategic Nuclear Command, forms part of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). It is responsible for the management and administration of the country's tactical and strategic nuclear we ...

in Delhi. ''Arihant''-class nuclear submarines will be based at INS Varsha. The naval bases lies on the confluence of

Sarada Sharada or Sarada (Sanskrit for "autumnal") may refer to: * the season spanning the months of Bhadrapada, Ashvin, and Kārtika of the traditional lunar Hindu calendar * Another name for the Hindu goddess Saraswati * Sharada script, abugida writing ...

and

Varaha Varaha (, , "boar") is the avatar of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu, in the form of a wild boar, boar. Varaha is generally listed as third in the Dashavatara, the ten principal avatars of Vishnu. In legend, when the demon Hiranyaksha steals ...

rivers.

History

As early as in 2005, Project ''Varsha'' base was planned to be located within a radius of approximately from Visakhapatnam in order to de-congest the

Visakhapatnam Port Visakhapatnam Port is one of twelve major ports in India and the only major port in Andhra Pradesh, located in Visakhapatnam. The port is India's third largest by volume of cargo handled and largest on the Eastern Coast. History Althoug ...

, which is being used by both the Navy and the civilian Ministry of Shipping. The Navy's dockyards at Vizag was facing shortage of berthing space due to the rapid expansion of the Eastern fleet, which grew from 15 major warships in 2006 to 46 in 2012, and is still expanding. Initially, Gangavaram, south of Visakhapatnam, was considered for the new base, but Rambilli was chosen as the final location to construct the naval base.

Features

INS ''Varsha'' will have a large near-by facility of the

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India's premier nuclear research facility, headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Homi Jehangir Bhabha as the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) in January 1954 ...

(BARC), and will include modern nuclear engineering support facilities and extensive crew accommodation. It is designed to support the fleet of over 12 nuclear ballistic missile submarine and nuclear attack submarines to be built for the Indian Navy within a network of underground pens in the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats is a mountain range that stretches along the East Coast of India, eastern coast of the Indian peninsula. Covering an area of , it traverses the states and union territories of India, states of Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Prade ...

. This would avoid detection of the submarines during satellite and aerial surveillance as well as protect them from enemy air attacks. With the operationalisation of the base, submarines can be deployed into the waters of the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

stealthily without needing to surface. This is because of the natural depth of the region which would act like a "cloak". While designed principally as a nuclear submarine support facility, the new base will also accommodate additional surface naval vessels after the ongoing construction of

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

. Comparable to the top-secret

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

nuclear submarine base of the Chinese PLA Navy, this east coast base expansion programme by the Indian Navy was started due to India's Look East policy and the Chinese naval expansion into the region.

Construction

Project Varsha is being undertaken to enhance India's navy capabilities on the Eastern Coast of India. For the

Western Coast of India Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, similar expansion are being undertaken under the Project Seabird for the INS ''Kadamba'' at

Karwar Karwar is a coastal City and the administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district, formerly part of the Bombay Presidency, located at the mouth of the Kali River (Karnataka), Kali river along the Konkan Coast in the present-day state of Ka ...

. ''Project Varsha Phase-I:'' : In 2011-12, the phase-I commenced with allocation of for civil works and for a VLF communication system, subsequently additional funding was progressively released to expand the naval base which was completed in 2025 and was set to be commissioned in 2026 on the eastern coast of India. ''Project Varsha Phase-II:'' : In 2018, , 670 hectares of forest land in Rambilli were allocated for building a strategic technical area and command center for the Indian Navy under phase-II, as well as 845 ha for BARC's Nuclear Marine and Submarine Missile R&D complex away,

References

{{Indian Navy Varsha

History

Features

Construction

See also

References