2017-12-07 Thu

President of India Ram Nath Kovind will be releasing a commemorative stamp, First Day Cover, and information brochure to celebrate the inception of INS Kalvari Submarine. The Philatelic Bureau, Visakhapatnam Head Post Office, Vellampet-530001 will offer all these materials for sale on Friday. A Philately stall and Postal Life Insurance Stall will be set up at Samudrika, Sailors Institute, VM Naval Base, Visakhapatnam on Friday. These stalls will be selling Stamps, Stationery and My Stamp on different themes.

INS Kalvari is the first of a six Scorpene-class submarine that was handed over to the Indian Navy for its commissioning on Thursday. It’s named after Tiger Shark which is found in the Indian Ocean. The submarine is Make in India at Mumbai’s Mazagon Docks in collaboration with French firm DCNS. The total cost of all the 6 submarines is around Rs 350 crores.

66-metre Kalvari can carry 18 torpedoes, travel 1,020km underwater and dive 300 metres deep to avoid enemy detection. It has precision-guided weapons like torpedoes and tube-launched anti-ship missiles which can attack underwater or from the surface. It can also carry out activities like intelligence gathering, mine-laying and area surveillance. It can carry weapons that can be easily reloaded at sea. Built using high-tensile steel, the submarine can withstand hydrostatic force while diving deeper to enhance stealth. India has Russian Kilo-class and German HDW class 209 submarines. But not all of them are battle ready at a given time.