Indian PM Meets All WOmen Crew of Navika Sagar Parikrama
Six women officers of the Indian Navy, who are due to circumnavigate the globe on the sailing vessel, INSV Tarini, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is the first-ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew.
They will begin their voyage later this month from Goa, and expect to return to Goa in March 2018, after completing the circumnavigation. "Navika Sagar Parikrama is a project wherein a team of women officers of the Indian Navy would circumnavigate the globe on an Indian-built sail boat INSV Tarini," explained a government statement.
The project is considered essential towards promoting Ocean Sailing activities in the Navy while depicting Government of India’s thrust for ‘Nari Shakti’ (Women Power).
Narendra Modi said he would keep track of their progress around the world. He also exhorted them to project India’s capabilities and strengths across the world and encouraged them to write and share their experiences, after the successful completion of the voyage.
During the interaction, the crew explained details of their upcoming voyage to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister wished the women crew well, and exhorted them to project India’s capabilities and strengths across the world.
He also encouraged them to write and share their experiences, after successful completion of the voyage. INSV Tarini is a 55-foot sailing vessel, which has been built indigenously, and was inducted in the Indian Navy earlier this year.
The vessel will be skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, and crewed by Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal and P Swathi, and Lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta.
The expedition has been titled Navika Sagar Parikrama and will be undertaken in five legs, with stop-overs at 4 ports namely Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa).
