Indian warship damaged by fire at dockyard 

INS Brahmaputra, a multirole frigate of the Indian Navy, has been severely damaged date rot caught fire while undergoing maintenance at a dockyard in Mumbai. A junior sailor, who was a part of the crew, has gone missing after the incident and a search and rescue mission has been initiated, the navy said.

The ship caught fire on Sunday. A day later, it was brought under control by the ship’s crew with assistance of firefighters from the dockyard and other ships in harbour, the Indian Navy said in a  statement. However, the vessel capsized and could not be made upright.

 ”The ship experienced severe listing to one side [port side]. Despite all efforts, the ship could not be brought to the upright position,” the navy has said, adding that it has ordered an inquiry to investigate the matter.

Built by state-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited, the ship  was commissioned into the Indian Navy in April 2000. It is one of three Brahmaputra-class guided missile frigates (Project 16A) of the naval forces that were designed and built in India. The ship is fitted with medium-range, close range and anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, and torpedo launchers and is manned by a crew of 40 officers and 330 sailors.

The INS Brahmaputra fire is the latest in a series of similar incidents in the Mumbai dockyard in the past decade.

In 2013, the INS Sindhurakshak, a Russian-made diesel-electric submarine, suffered a major fire and explosion and sank, killing 18 crew members. The army later said that the incident occurred due to “lapses in procedure.”

In 2016, the frigate INS Betwa of same class as INS Brahmaputra, fell off her support blocks, killing two people and injuring 15 more. Betwa was salvaged and repaired and returned to service in 2020.

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