| Post: | Director General Project Seabird |
| Flag: | File:Vice_Admiral_ensign_of_Indian_Navy.svg |
| Flagsize: | 150 |
| Flagborder: | yes |
| Flagcaption: | Flag of the DG Seabird (Vice Admiral's flag) |
| Incumbent: | Vice Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar, NM |
| Incumbentsince: | 28 Aug 2024 |
| Department: | Indian Navy |
| Abbreviation: | DG Seabird |
| Reports To: | Vice Chief of the Naval Staff |
| Seat: | New Delhi |
| First: | Rear Admiral S. K. Chand, AVSM |
The Director General of Project Seabird (DG Seabird) is a senior appointment in the Indian Navy with the rank of Vice Admiral. The DG heads the Seabird Project with a charter to oversee the largest defence infrastructure project progressing at the Karwar Naval Base.
In the early 1980s, then Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Admiral Oscar Stanley Dawson conceived of a naval base sandwiched between the hills of the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea near Karwar in Karnataka state. Located south of the naval bases in Mumbai and Goa and north of Kochi, the location had advantages as being very close to the world's busiest shipping route between the Persian Gulf and east Asia and out of range of most strike aircraft from neighbouring countries. It offered a natural deep-water harbour and significant land area for expansion, allowing larger aircraft carriers to berth. However, due to a variety of reasons, including the 1991 economic crisis, development was delayed.[1]
In 1999, following Pokhran-II, then Defence Minister George Fernandes approved Project Seabird to pursue the construction of the new naval base at Karwar. Larsen & Toubro was the lead contractor for the marine works on the harbour, in partnership with Hochtief, Ballast Nadem Dredging of the Netherlands, Radisson of Australia and Nedeco of The Netherlands. Over 5km (03miles) of breakwater was constructed using over 4.4 million cubic metres of rock to protect the harbour.[2] The Binaga Bay was dredged and its rock outcrops blasted to allow even large aircraft carriers to turn inside the bay. Anjadip Island is one of the two islands to which the breakwaters are linked for reinforcement. A second channel will be added to the base to allow warships to simultaneously enter and exit the port .[3]
| Director General Project Seabird[4] | |||||
| S.No. | Name | Assumed office | Left office | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rear Admiral S. K. Chand, | 19 March 1986 | 18 April 1990 | ||
| 1 | Vice Admiral S. K. Chand, | 18 April 1990 | 24 August 1991 | ||
| 2 | Rear Admiral P. S. Das, | 24 August 1991 | 1 October 1992 | Later Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command. | |
| 3 | Rear Admiral V. K. Malhotra, | 1 October 1992 | 31 October 1994 | Later Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area | |
| 4 | Rear Admiral M. Raman | 31 October 1994 | 9 November 1995 | ||
| 5 | Rear Admiral O. P. Bansal | 9 November 1995 | 15 November 1996 | Later Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command. | |
| 6 | Rear Admiral S. V. Gopalachari, | 15 November 1996 | 13 October 1997 | Later Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.[5] | |
| 7 | Rear Admiral Raman Puri, | 13 October 1997 | 22 April 1998 | Later Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command and Chief of Integrated Defence Staff.[6] | |
| 7 | Vice Admiral Raman Puri, | 22 April 1998 | 9 March 1999 | ||
| 8 | Rear Admiral S. R. Sampath Gopal, | 9 March 1999 | 30 April 2003 | Earlier Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet.[7] | |
| 9 | Rear Admiral K. Mohanrao | 1 May 2003 | 31 December 2005 | [8] [9] | |
| 10 | Commodore P. C. Agrawal | 1 January 2006 | 26 March 2006 | ||
| 12 | Rear Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin, | 26 March 2006 | 31 October 2006 | Later Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command.[10] | |
| 12 | Vice Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin, | 1 November 2006 | 18 January 2007 | ||
| 13 | Rear Admiral B. R. Rao, | Later Chief Hydrographer to Government of India.[11] | |||
| 14 | Rear Admiral A. R. Radhakrishnan | [12] | |||
| 15 | Rear Admiral C. S. Murthy, | [13] | |||
| 16 | Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, | Later Chief of the Naval Staff.[14] [15] | |||
| 17 | Vice Admiral Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar, | Later Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.[16] | |||
| 18 | Vice Admiral Ravneet Singh, | Later Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.[17] | |||
| 19 | Vice Admiral Srikant, | Earlier Commandant of the National Defence College.[18] | |||
| 20 | Vice Admiral Puneet Kumar Bahl, | 1 January 2021 | 24 December 2021 | Later Commandant of Indian Naval Academy.[19] | |
| 21 | Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti, | 24 December 2021 | 1 October 2023 | Current Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.[20] | |
| 22 | Vice Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar, | 28 August 2024 | Present | Current DG Project Seabird.[21] | |