INSV Kaundinya, the Navy’s pioneering stitched sailing vessel built using traditional techniques, is undertaking her maiden overseas voyage to Oman on Monday (December 29, 2025).
The vessel, which will be flagged off from Porbandar in Gujarat for Muscat, symbolically retraces the historic maritime routes that connected India with the wider Indian Ocean.
“Unlike contemporary vessels, her wooden planks are stitched together using coconut coir rope and sealed with natural resins, reflecting a shipbuilding tradition once prevalent along India’s coasts and across the Indian Ocean,” the Defence Ministry said.
This technology enabled Indian mariners to undertake long-distance voyages to West Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia long before the advent of modern navigation and metallurgy, the officials said.
The project was undertaken through a tripartite agreement between the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy and Hodi Innovations as part of India’s efforts to rediscover and revive indigenous knowledge systems.
