Cochin Shipyard's Rs 18-bn 3rd dry dock to make Kochi one-stop maritime hub

The Union Minister of Shipping Nitin Gadkari and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have done the groundbreaking for the third dry dock of Cochin Shipyard (CSL) at Kochi on Monday. Located in the northern end of the shipyard, this will be one of the largest dry docks in India in terms of size and strength.

The new dry dock will be equipped with one gantry crane of 600 tonnes, two LLTT cranes of 75 tonnes each and an option to add another 600-tonne gantry crane at a later stage. 

Estimated at Rs 17.99 billion, the cost of the project is partly being met through funds raised by CSL's August 2017 initial public offering (IPO) and partly through internal resources. 

The IPO, which was oversubscribed by 76 times, helped CSL raise Rs 9.41 billion for its two projects — a 310-metre dry dock and an International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) project at Cochin Port Trust premises. 

The dock would contribute towards the target of increasing India’s share from 0.4 per cent to two per cent of the global ship-building industry, With this project, India will emerge as a major ship repair centre on par with Colombo, Dubai, Singapore, Bahrain, among others. Kochi will become a one-stop maritime hub for repair needs of all vessels calling at Indian ports. The project is expected to create 2,000 jobs, directly and indirectly during the operation stage.

The new drydock, when commissioned, will help CSL to have a more diversified product profile. The dual-purpose dry dock is planned to tap the market potential of repairs/construction of specialised and technologically advanced large vessels such as LNG vessels, jack-up rigs, drill ships, large dredgers, second indigenous aircraft carrier and repair of offshore platforms and larger vessels. 

The new dry dock can comfortably handle aircraft carriers of 70,000 tonnes docking displacement and merchant vessels of 55,000 tonnes docking displacement. The dock floor is designed to take a load of 600 tonnes/metre, which is the safety margin according to international codes. 

The new dry dock project is in line with the 'Make in India' initiative of the Narendra Modi government and dovetailed into the ‘Sagarmala' programme that promotes ship building and repair facilities.

Delivers two vessels for Andaman & Nicobar

The two 500-capacity passenger vessels under construction in CSL for Andaman & Nicobar Administration was also launched on Monday at CSL's premises. These are a part of a four-vessel order valued at around Rs 14 billion. 

Launched by Nitin Gadkari's wife Kanchan Gadkari, the ships are to be delivered by September 2019 and February 2020, but CSL is targeting to deliver the vessels much ahead. 

The basic design of these vessels was done by Smart Engineering and Design Solution, Kochi, in cooperation with Architects Knud E Hansen of Denmark. The vessels have been designed after a series of model tests and simulations at Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, Netherlands.

These two modern ships were built to the standards of the Indian Register of Shipping and American Bureau of Shipping. Since they also meet the requirements of a class-V passenger vessel according to Indian Merchant Shipping rules, it will be a boon to the residents of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

These two ships would ply between the group of islands and would give a boost to the tourism sector there. Presently, the A&N administration is dependant on five ships, of which, three are more than 20 years old, for serving the intra-island transportation requirement. With the construction of these two 500-capacity passenger vessels, this sector would get much-needed support.