President commissions Navy’s AOPV ‘Sayurala’

President Maithripala Sirisena commissioned the Sri Lanka Navy’s first Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) ‘Sayurala’ , at the Eastern Container Terminal, Port of Colombo on Wednesday.

The AOPV built at the Indian shipbuilding facility, Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) and it is the first ever brand new platform, purchased from a foreign ship builder, tailored for the specific requirements of the Sri Lanka Navy. Further, it holds the record for the largest vessel built by an Indian shipbuilder for a foreign Navy to date. The brand new state of the art AOPV arrived at the Port of Colombo on July 28.

The Vessel is expected to conduct patrols, policing, reconnaissance, surveillance, search and rescue, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and pollution control missions in Sri Lanka’s maritime zones. Moreover, it can also be used for external fire-fighting missions. Upon the arrival of the President at the Eastern Container Terminal, he was received by the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, he was also accorded a guard of honour in accordance with Naval formalities.

Subsequently, the President presented the commissioning warrant to Commanding Officer of the ship, Captain (N) Nishantha Amarosa. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, State Minister Ruwan Wijewardene, Defence Production Secretary of India A.K. Gupta, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, Indian Flag Officer Commander-in-chief of the Southern Naval Command Vice Admiral A.R. Karve and others participated on this occasion.