Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), a Mini Ratna Category 1 Defence PSU and a leading warship building company of India, bid farewell to CMD Rear Admiral VK Saxena (Retd) in Kolkata on 28 February.
After an illustrious career spanning over three decades in the Indian Navy, Rear Admiral Saxena took over as Chairman and Managing Director of GRSE on 1 March 2017. Right from day one, Rear Admiral Saxena’s leadership as CMD GRSE has been marked by remarkable adroitness in making his vision a reality while putting people first and celebrating targets together, the company said.
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It was in his tenure that GRSE achieved the distinction of delivering 15 warships in a short span of 60 months. Under the dynamic leadership of Rear Admiral Saxena, GRSE also created history by delivering the “100th Warship”, a Landing Craft Utility, L-56 on March 30, 2019, to the Indian Navy. With this achievement, the GRSE became the first Indian Shipyard to build and deliver 100 warships to our Maritime Forces.
It is because of his insight, and ability to think out of the box, that GRSE has clinched highly coveted deals. The Shipyard is currently executing six prestigious projects of 23 ships including ships for exports, the company added.
“Thanks to Rear Admiral Saxena’s vision on raising the bar higher in the sphere of infrastructure enhancement, GRSE is now positioned to construct 20 ships concurrently using state of the art Advanced Modular Integrated Shipbuilding Technology and modernisation of facilities in all three ship production locations,” GRSE stated.
“With Admiral VK Saxena’s focused approach towards capacity enhancement, GRSE has remained committed to adopting AI-enabled operations in Design, Production and Supply Chain Management. Today the DPSU is all set for major transformation powered by knowledge, skill, operational capabilities, brand equity, and a dedicated team.
“His striking leadership qualities have been duly recognised not only by the people he worked with but also by awards conferred on him in person. It was a proud moment when on 15 July 2021 Admiral V. K. Saxena was conferred with ‘CEO of the Year’, award at Asian Leadership Awards 2021. Being recognised as one of the “Next Fortune 500 Companies of India” is another distinguished laurel received by GRSE recently,” GRSE added.
