People throng to get a glimpse of naval ships

For the first time, the ships – Sahydari (a stealth frigate), Kamorta (anti-submarine warfare corvette), Sumitra (a naval advanced offshore patrol vessel), Airavat (an amphibious ship) and Kirch (a missile corvette) – were open to visitors at Chennai Port between April 13 and 15, on the sidelines of the expo.

The ships visit witnessed overwhelming response, with 20,500 people visiting them by 4 pm as on Saturday, while 26,000 visitors spent time aboard the indigenously built state-of-the-art warships on Friday.

The valedictory event was presided over by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, who commended the Ministry of Defence on conducting the expo that coincided with the Tamil New Year celebrations and the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the principle architect of Indian Constitution. The four-day long DefExpo was held to showcase India as an emerging defence manufacturing hub, with the participation of more than 670 exhibitors, including over 150 international exhibitors, with a 15 per cent representation from the MSME sector. Several important joint agreements between India and Russia were signed to encourage production of spare parts and servicing of other Russianmade defence equipment in India.