India navy drops another
anchor By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - The Indian Navy is getting a
new base on the country's east coast. It is 50
kilometers south of Visakhapatnam, where the
navy's eastern command is headquartered. This is
India's second east-coast naval base, and it is
designed to help protect the country's trade with
Southeast Asia and to keep a wary eye on China's
naval posture in the Bay of Bengal.
The
new base - it doesn't have a name yet since it is
still at a concept and design stage - is expected
to berth two aircraft
carriers, support ships and
submarines. India's first indigenously built
aircraft carrier, which is capable of operating a
fleet of 30 aircraft, including naval light combat
aircraft, MiG 29K and Sea Harrier aircraft, is
likely to be berthed there.
Visakhapatnam
houses a naval base and a commercial port, the
latter India's leading port in terms of tonnage
for the sixth year in a row. Since expansion of
the port is not feasible and with maritime traffic
expected to increase in the coming years, the need
for a complementary port has been felt for a while
now. That culminated in the decision to set up a
commercial port at Gangavaram.
Just as
Gangavaram will help ease the pressure of
commercial traffic at Visakhapatnam, the new naval
base is expected to decongest the Visakhapatnam
naval base. Lawrence Prabhakar, research fellow in
the Maritime Security program at the Institute for
Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, points
out that the new base "will provide better
anchorage facilities than the crowded
Visakhapatnam base".
At Visakhapatnam, the
Indian Navy has had to share space with commercial
vessels. For several years the navy has been
seeking a naval base on the east coast that is
under its exclusive control. A similar demand with
regard to the west coast resulted in the
commissioning of Indian Naval Ship (port) Kadamba
at Karwar last year. Kadamba is exclusively under
the control of the navy and was set up to ease
congestion at Mumbai, which like Visakhapatnam
houses a naval base and a commercial port.
There is a need for diversification of
naval platforms and another base on the eastern
seaboard will meet that need, Prabhakar told Asia
Times Online. Besides, there is a need to
accommodate newer ships with specialized berthing
and service facilities, and appropriate
infrastructure for newer ships such as the new
air-defense ships and submarines. "The new eastern
naval base, along with INS Kadamba would thus
emerge as second-tier defense in depth at sea for
the Indian Navy," Prabhakar points out. The
proposed base on India's east coast is the latest
addition to its rapidly growing naval and maritime
profile. India's navy is the fifth-largest in the
world. It has ambitions of becoming a blue-water
navy, and another naval base will contribute to
realizing this ambition.
India describes
the waters extending from the Strait of Hormuz to
the Strait of Malacca, from Africa's east coast to
the western shores of Australia as part of its
"rightful domain". An overwhelming proportion of
India's imports, especially its oil imports, come
by sea. Control over sea lanes of communication
(SLOCs) is therefore vital for realization of its
dreams of becoming a global economic powerhouse.
All this requires a naval and maritime fleet that
can protect the SLOCs.
India's "Look-East"
policy has resulted in increased economic,
strategic and other engagement with Southeast
Asia. Over 50% of India's trade passes through the
Malacca Strait, making security of this waterway,
particularly in the context of piracy there and
the lurking threat of maritime terrorism, a
crucial security concern for India.
An
enhanced naval presence in the Bay of Bengal is
therefore vital for India. It was this that
prompted India to set up a naval command on the
Andaman and Nicobar islands. The new base on
India's east coast will further bolster the
Andaman and Nicobar naval command, Prabhakar
observes, adding that since the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands are vulnerable to seismic and
tsunami threats, "another base on the Eastern
mainland of India is quite essential".
"The political-strategic intent of the new
base is to build sinews for India's "Look-East"
policy not only in trade terms but also in the
context of the evolving maritime balance of power
in the Asia-Pacific," says Prabhakar. China is the
dominant concern. "The proposed base would have
comprehensive anti-air, anti-submarine and
amphibious capability, meaning a greater
allocation of priority to the emergent Chinese
naval force posture in the Myanmar region."
A second naval base on the east coast,
which will contribute to increasing India's naval
presence in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian
Ocean, is intended to balance China's influence
there and to facilitate ongoing Indian naval
exercises in the South China Sea with the navies
of China-wary countries.
The location of
the new base is said to be ideal. It is tucked
away from the heart of the Bay of Bengal and the
Indian Ocean; yet these are easily accessible from
the base, as is the Malacca Strait. It is not too
near to Bangladesh or Myanmar - where the Chinese
naval presence poses a threat to India - as
Kolkata is; yet it is close enough to "watch and
listen" to Chinese naval activity here.
While the location of the new base is
being described as excellent, it appears that the
Indian Navy's first choice for the site was
Gangavaram, where the new commercial port is being
constructed. The navy apparently had identified
Gangavaram as best suited for building berthing
facilities for its Advanced Technology Vessel (or
nuclear submarine) project. It had apparently put
in a request some years ago for Gangavaram to be
developed as a naval facility but the government
turned it down.
Not only did the Indian
government sideline the navy for development of
the Gangavaram port but worse, it awarded the
development of the port project to a private
consortium consisting of DV Raju and Dubai Ports
World. The latter, the world's third largest port
operator, was caught in a political storm in the
United States early this year, with questions
being raised over the security implications of a
United Arab Emirates-owned (UAE)company taking
over the running of six American ports.
In
April this year, when Dubai Ports World's role as
developer of the Gangavaram port drew media
attention, an official in India's Defense Ministry
told Asia Times Online that the Indian Navy had
written to the government four to five years ago
expressing its concerns with Dubai Ports World
developing Gangavaram.
Unlike the American
objection to a UAE-based company running its
ports, the Indian Navy's objection was that a
foreign operator was being allowed to manage a
port so close to the eastern naval command's
headquarters, he said. Dubai Ports World
subsequently pulled out of the consortium that is
developing Gangavaram port.
The new base
is being described as the Kadamba of the east.
There is little doubt that like Kadamba it will
boost India's naval ambitions. But will it - like
Kadamba - take decades to become a reality?
"Project Seabird" of which Kadamba is a
part was conceived decades ago. It received
government sanction in August 1985, and
construction was to begin in January 1986 and
finish in seven years. In October 1986, then prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi even laid the foundation
stone for the project. But it was shelved thanks
to a resource crunch. Work on the project began
only in late 1999 and after enormous time and cost
overruns, Kadamba was finally commissioned last
year.
Government officials are quick to
dismiss fears that the new base will take time to
become a reality. Of the 5,000 acres sought by the
Defense Ministry, the government of Andhra Pradesh
- the state where the base will be located - has
already allotted 500 acres. According to reports,
the remaining land is to be assigned shortly. The
project seems to have started off well. But
political and bureaucratic meddling will have to
stop for the new naval base project to go full
steam ahead.
Sudha Ramachandran
is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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