This week, the Indian Navy inaugurated its premier Naval Sailing Node at Upper Lake (Bhojtal) in Bhopal, a facility that will train competitive sailors, rowers, kayakers and canoeists, and one that carries a striking strategic logic for a landlocked state capital.
The inauguration was presided over by Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Chief of Naval Staff, in the presence of senior defence and civil officials, NCC Cadets and students. Over 30 naval personnel from the Indian Navy Watermanship Training Centre (INWTC), Visakhapatnam, along with Navy Rowing, Kayaking and Canoeing teams, performed a spectacular Sail Parade on the waters of Bhojtal to mark the occasion.
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The reason Bhopal was chosen is embedded in a single number: 17 of the Indian Navy Sailing Team's 34 members, exactly half the squad, are from Madhya Pradesh. The new node formalises what has effectively been an organic talent pipeline, giving future sailors from the state access to structured, Navy-grade training on the same lake where many of them first learned to sail.
Bhojtal, built in the 11th century by Raja Bhoj of the Paramara dynasty, covers 36.1 square kilometres and is already recognised as a Ramsar wetland site, one of India's oldest and largest man-made lakes.
The facility will serve the Indian Navy Sailing Team, Navy Rowing, Canoeing and Kayaking Teams, and NCC cadets. Its establishment directly supports India's Olympic and Asian Games pipeline. India won three sailing medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023, and the Navy Sailing Team took eight medals at the YAI Senior National Championship 2025.
Maritime and Bhopal
The Indian Navy's watermanship philosophy holds that competence on water, regardless of whether it is a lake, river or ocean, builds the instinctive comfort with aquatic environments that is foundational to naval operations.
The INWTC at Visakhapatnam, the Navy's existing flagship watermanship facility, conducts Yachting Association of India (YAI) Level 1 and 2 sailing courses and has been the primary training ground for competitive Navy sailors.
Bhopal's Naval Sailing Node is an inland extension of this architecture, designed not to replace coastal training but to identify and develop talent earlier, in the heartland.