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The Indian Navy will commission Nipun, the second Nistar-class Diving Support Vessel, at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai on 31 August 2026.
Nipun was indigenously designed and built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, and was delivered on 30 July 2026.
The contract for the two Nistar-class vessels was signed with the Ministry of Defence on 20 September 2018.
The ship will act as the mother platform for the Navy's Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle and carries saturation diving systems, hyperbaric chambers and ROVs.
Its sister ship INS Nistar was commissioned in July 2025 at Visakhapatnam and serves with the Eastern Naval Command; Nipun places a matching capability on the west coast.
| Feature | INS Nistar | Nipun |
|---|---|---|
| Position in class | First vessel | Second and final vessel |
| Commissioned | July 2025, at Visakhapatnam | 31 August 2026, at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai |
| Command | Eastern Naval Command | West coast, placing a matching DSV alongside the Western fleet |
| Builder | Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam | Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam |
A DSV is a mother ship for underwater work. It carries a saturation diving complex - pressurised living chambers and diving bells that let divers stay at depth pressure for days instead of surfacing between dives - plus hyperbaric recompression chambers to treat decompression sickness. Its dynamic positioning system uses thrusters to hold the ship over an exact spot on the seabed despite current and swell, which is what makes precision work possible. In a submarine emergency, the DSV is the platform that carries, launches and recovers the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV), the small craft that mates with the hatch of a distressed submarine and takes the crew off. Without a dedicated mother ship, a DSRV has to be flown in and mounted on a ship of opportunity, costing critical hours.
Simple Analogy: The DSRV is the ambulance; the DSV is the fire station it lives in, with the crew, the equipment and the fuel already on board.
Ministry of Defence signs a contract with Hindustan Shipyard Limited for two Diving Support Vessels.
The Indian Navy commissions its first Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai; the DSRV can rescue crew from a distressed submarine at depths up to 650 metres.
The Navy's second DSRV is inducted, at Visakhapatnam.
INS Nistar, the first indigenous DSV, is commissioned at Visakhapatnam and joins the Eastern Naval Command.
HSL delivers Nipun to the Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam.
Nipun is commissioned at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai.
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A technique in which divers live at working pressure in a sealed chamber for days, avoiding repeated decompression.
Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle - a small submersible that docks with a disabled submarine to evacuate its crew.
Automated thrusters that hold a ship at a fixed position at sea without anchoring.
A pressurised chamber used to treat decompression sickness in divers.