INHS Asvini, the biggest hospital of the Indian Navy celebrated her 63rd anniversary of commissioning on 18 September 2014. The anniversary was celebrated in the traditional Naval manner with a cake cutting and Barakhana with the hospital’s crew.
According to defense spokesperson, established in 1756 as the King’s Seamans’ Hospital of the Royal Navy, it was handed over to the British Army in 1863. Thereafter it served as the Garrison Hospital for British troops till the Second World War, catering to Allied troops. The Indian Navy inherited the hospital on 18 September 1951 and commissioned it as INHS Asvini. Since then, INHS Asvini has grown manifold, providing yeoman service to personnel of Western Naval Command. The hospital is credited with treating a large number of war wounded patients during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars. With the steady growth of the Indian Navy, the hospital also has expended its facilities and was upgraded as a Command Hospital in 1977 with 825 beds. Paramedic Training and a Nursing School were also institutionalized and attached to this hospital. In addition, the hospital has been scaled up to train post-graduate doctors in various specialisations.
With its modernisation to a state-of-the-art complex in 2005, INHS Asvini has become an Advanced Tertiary Care, Multispeciality Hospital rendering to personnel of Army, Navy and Air Force as well as ex servicemen and their families.
[divider]
