Port Blair: During their illustrious journeys, Indian warships Cheetah, Guldar and Kumbhir participated in numerous maritime security missions, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Notable amongst them was their role during Operation Aman as part of IPKF operations and Operation Tasha a joint operation carried out between the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard in May 1990 to control the smuggling of arms and ammunition and illegal immigration across Indian and Srilankan border and made stellar contributions in relief operations post-1997 cyclone off Sri Lanka and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
These Indian Naval Ships ships were in active Naval service for nearly 40 years, and they left an indelible mark on the maritime landscape.
The three warships 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 warships conducted over 1300 beaching operations for the landing of army troops ashore.
During her initial years, Cheetah was based at Kochi and Chennai for brief periods, and Kumbhir and Guldar were based at Visakhapatnam. The ships were subsequently re-based at Andaman and Nicobar Command, where they served till the three ships were decommissioned on January 12, 2024, after rendering four decades of glorious service to the nation.
Their decommissioning marks the end of a significant chapter of the Indian Navy’s history. The decommissioning event was conducted at Port Blair in a traditional ceremony wherein the National Flag, the Naval Ensign and the Decommissioning Pennants of the three ships were lowered for the last time, at sunset.
All three ships were built at Gdynia Shipyard, Poland as Polnocny class Landing Ships and were commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1984, 1985 and 1986 respectively, in the presence of S K Arora (Cheetah and Guldar) and A K Das (Kumbhir) then Ambassadors of India to Poland. The Commanding Officers of the three ships were Cdr V B Mishra, Lt Cdr SK Singh and Lt Cdr J Banerjee respectively.
Air Marshal Saju Balakrishnan, AVSM, VM, Commander-in-Chief Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN), Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti, AVSM, VSM, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Flag Officers, former Commanding Officers and commissioning crew of the three ships attended the ceremonies at Port Blair. The event was also unique since three warships of the same class were decommissioned simultaneously on a single day.
– global bihari bureau
