Project Seabird Phase IIA Facilities Opened at Karwar Base

Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command, inaugurated a set of residential, medical and utility works at the Indian Navy's base in Karwar, Karnataka, on 15 October 2026. The facilities form part of Phase IIA of Project Seabird, the Navy's largest infrastructure programme. Vice Admiral Vivek Dahiya, Director General Seabird, and other senior officers were present.

What was inaugurated

The housing opened on the day consists of five towers holding 300 dwelling units for the Navy's defence civilians. Alongside it came a Station Health Organisation complex, which enlarges the existing naval hospital INHS Patanjali to a strength of 409 beds. Supporting these are a hill-top water reservoir of two lakh litres and a sewage treatment plant. A new access gate, together with bridge work carrying four lanes of vehicles and separate paths for walkers and cyclists, and an integrated solid waste management facility were also thrown open.

What Phase IIA still covers

The phase under way includes a dual-use naval air station, a full naval dockyard, and logistics arrangements for ships and aircraft. The base at Karwar is home to roughly 10,000 uniformed personnel and civilians together with their families, and the Navy expects the spending to lift local industry, trade and tourism and to create direct and indirect jobs across the Uttara Kannada district.

Green norms and indigenous content

The project follows the rules of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the standards of the Indian Green Building Council, and is to carry an IGBC Gold rating once finished. In keeping with Aatmanirbhar Bharat, more than ninety per cent of the material and equipment used has been bought within the country. Karwar, on the Karnataka coast, was chosen for the Navy's western fleet because it offers deep water away from a crowded commercial harbour, and each phase adds berthing, repair and support capacity there.