Indian Navy's first indigenously built floating dock launched
On June 20, 2017, the Indian Navy's first indigenously built floating dock was launched at the Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) shipyard in Kattupalli. This is a milestone in India's quest for self-reliance in ship building.
According to IANS, Yard 55000 was launched by Anjali Deshpande, the wife of Vice Admiral DM Deshpande, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition. The launch was held at L&T’s shipyard.
According to IANS, Vice Admiral Deshpande said,
The indigenous-built dock was testimony to the capabilities available in India for realising the ‘Make in India' vision.
The floating dock built is 185 metres long and 40 metres wide. It will enable the docking of all kinds of vessels including submarines and Indian naval ships of up to 8,000 tonnes displacement with draughts of up to seven metres. According to IANS, the Ministry said,
The floating dock built by the L&T Shipyard was an indigenously designed and built platform with state- of-the-art machinery and control systems capable of docking warships of up to 8,000 tonnes displacement.
The Ministry further said,
It has high-capacity ballast pumps, along with an advanced, automated ballast control system. The dock covers provided with the dock facilitate repair and refit activities in inclement weather conditions.
Before delivering it to the Navy, the dock will be put through a series of harbour trials, as per L&T. Once it comes into operation, it will be used to enhance the technical repair infrastructure of the Navy for ships that are based out of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as for visiting Naval ships.
Multiple ships can be simultaneously docked and off-centre docking operations are also feasible. According to IANS, Managing Director (Designate) and President, L&T, SN Subrahmanyan said,
While winning our first mandate from the Indian Navy was satisfying, I am particularly delighted that we have also been able to execute and deliver the FDN-2 well within schedule.
The Ministry of Defence had mandated L&T to work on the designing and building of the floating dock in May 2015. They were given this project on an order value of Rs 468 crore. The floating dock will be delivered to Port Blair as per schedule.
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