By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya  

The Indian Naval Ship ‘Nireekshak’, which is one of the highly advanced diving support ships of the Indian Navy, arrived at the Trincomalee Port yesterday for facilitating Mixed Gas Diving training for the Sri Lanka Navy.  
‘Nireekshak’ (A-15) is equipped with two six-men recompression chambers and one three-man diving bell. The ship is fully capable of undertaking rescue operations from a submarine in distress and training of saturation divers.   

The ship had earlier visited Trincomalee in September 2019 for similar training deployment for SLN divers.   
Such continued engagement of Indian Naval ships with the Sri Lanka Navy is in keeping with the Government of India’s capacity building initiative as part of its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.  

The ship is fully capable of undertaking rescue operations from a submarine in distress and training of saturation divers

The ship was warmly welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy as per Naval tradition. After arrival, the Commanding Officer of the Indian Naval ship, Commander Mohammad Ikram called on Commander of Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral P.D.S. Dias. They held cordial discussions on furthering training in diving during the 10-day deployment.