GRSE Launches Portable Assault Bridge

Kolkata: Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) on Thursday launched its portable assault bridge that can be broken up into pieces and carried by infantry soldiers as part of their kit. The bridge was inaugurated by defence minister Rajnath Singh through a video conference.

This is one-of-its-kind in the country and is a major step towards self-reliance in defence production, GRSE CMD Rear Admiral (retd) V K Saxena said.
Apart from ships, GRSE also builds bailey bridges. Nearly 5,300 such bridges have been delivered to the Army, Border Roads Organisation, central and state governments as well as friendly countries. The bridge division of the company has now developed the assault bridge that is built with lightweight carbon fibre polymer composite material. The bridge, once assembled, can accommodate soldiers and lightweight vehicles.

The bridge has a span of 30 feet, width of 2.1 metres and weighs 336 kg. It can be assembled by 10-12 people and is very useful in forward areas when troops have to cross a gorge and also during natural disasters.

“GRSE has already embarked on the path of Atmanirbhar Bharat and has achieved over 90% indigenisation in shipbuilding. It has delivered 105 ships to the Navy and Coast Guard and is also the only shipyard in the country to build a warship for export to the Mauritius. At present, 20 ships can be built concurrently at the shipyard. The capacity will go up to 24 soon,” a senior GRSE official said.

Source: ToI