Chennai July 3 (IANS) Engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd on Tuesday said the keel of fifth and sixth offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for the Indian Coast Guard was laid near here.
In a statement the company said the keel was laid at the company s defence shipyard at Kattupalli.
This is part of the series of in-house designed seven new generation OPVs for the coastal security agency against a 2015 contract stipulating deliveries between 2018 and 2021.
"The keel laying comes close on the heels of delivery and commissioning of first OPV of the series ICGS Vikram in April 2018 " Vice Admiral B. Kannan (Retd) MD & CEO L&T Shipbuilding was quoted as saying in the statement.
He said the first OPV s build period which is reckoned from keel laying to delivery was accomplished in an impressive time frame of less than 24 months and it is being substantially bettered on follow-on ships.
The second OPV launched in January 2018 is presently being readied for sea trials and is planned to be delivered ahead of schedule while system integration is in progress in third and fourth OPVs slated for launch later this year.

--IANS vj/him/mr