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.

[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.

Over five km (3.1 mi) of breakwater was constructed using over 4.4 million cubic metres of rock to protect the harbour.

A second channel will be added to the base to allow warships to simultaneously enter and exit the port .