After guarding India for 27 years, grand vessel Samar is finally given rest

The great Indian coast guard vessel "Samar" was decommissioned today at Kochi, Kerala. The retirement ceremony of Samar was held in full grace and a grand goodbye was given to the vessel for serving the country for decades.

Glorious sailing journey of Samar

Samar is an indigenously built guard vessel that has been guarding the Indian maritime border for the past 27 years of service. Goa Shipyard Limited constructed the vessel.

Initially, Samar was based under the operational command of the Coast Guard West region and it was then re-based in Kochi in 2009.

The ship sailed 5,68,700 nautical miles and guarded the Indian maritime border for 54,000 hours in total.

Samar was among 6 vessels of the same class whose construction was ordered in 1990. These were mainly used for patrolling the maritime waters, protecting of oil platforms, and the Indian Economic Zones.

The ship also has the capacity to carry a single Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and five high-speed boats as well. Samar has a glorious history as it has participated in medical evacuation, search and rescue operations, and repatriation of Myanmarese. apart from this, Samar also participated in 20 joint exercises with foreign vessels.

Samar also extended medical assistance to foreign vessels in the sea and detected 10 vessels that were operating illegally in Indian waters.

The Indian Coast Guard is responsible for law enforcement, search, and rescue in the sea.

A tale of sail

It was an emotional moment for Prabhakar Paleri as he climbed to the deck of the Guardian for the last time to say goodbye. The reason for it being a memorable moment is because Prabhakaran was the first officer to command the ship when it first sailed in the water in Goa in the year 1996.

On November 3, Friday, Prabhakaran arrived in Kochi to witness the decommissioning of the vessel. The vessel was decommissioned on Saturday. Prabhakaran Paleri is currently serving as a professor at the Rashtriya Rakhsha University after he retired from service in 2006 as the Director General of ICG.

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