The premier defence shipyard here, Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL), is expecting orders for construction of two submarines for the Indian Navy.
However, highly placed MDL sources said it would take at least a year for revitalising the existing submarine construction facility and manpower training before work could start on the project.
In addition, it takes about seven and half years to construct a modern submarine, which, going by conservative estimates, means that the MDL would require at least eight to nine years to deliver a submarine.
The ultra-modern submarine facility has been lying idle for a couple of years now since the construction of two HDW-type submarines Shalki and Shankul in collaboration with Germany in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The navy has been pressing for induction of new submarines to maintain the current force level as the kilo-class submarines, bought from the former Soviet Union, will have to be decommissioned in the next few years.
Construction of a missile boat and three new class frigates whose design incorporate features from other classes of warships are also in the pipeline, orders for which are awaited, MDL sources said.
A grab hopper dredger being constructed by MDL for the Mumbai Port Trust was launched at a special ceremony in the shipyard yesterday.
The dredger, christened Vivek, slid into the waters after Suniti Kale, wife of Port Trust chairman S G Kale, pressed the button from the launch pad.
Talking to reporters on the launch occasion, the MDL chairman and managing director, Captain (retd) S V Nair said the shipyard was currently installation equipment and weaponry systems on two larger class of destroyers, `Mysore and `Bombay launched earlier.
The first one in the series, Delhi, is undergoing pre-commissioning trials and is likely to be formally commissioned into the navy by the middle of this year.
While `Mysore is expected to be commissioned by 1998 after sea trials, `Bombay will be commissioned by the turn of the century, MDL sources said.
MDL is also engaged in fitting equipment on a guided missile corvette built by Garden Reach Shipyard of Calcutta.
Nair said the shipyard had not received orders from the navy in past 10 years and had accumulated losses running into crores of rupees.
He, however, hoped that the losses would be wiped out with the delivery of the vessels.
The existing capacity utilisation of ship building has fallen to just 70 per cent and 1,053 skilled workers had quit under voluntary retirement scheme, he said.
MDL, the chairman disclosed, has approached the government with a proposal to convert its loans to the shipyard in to equity to reduced the losses.
Despite funds shortage, the present commitments will be kept and the deliveries of the ships (to the navy) will be met at all costs, Nair said.
The dredger, which was launched yesterday, is a self-propelled garb hopper dredger with trailing suction facility and is equipped with two grab cranes of capacity of 4.5 cubic metres.
Its overall length is 64.60 metres, overall breadth 13.50 metres, dead weight 1340 tons and the ship costs Rs 34.34 crore.
The keel of the vessel, christened `Vivek, was laid by K A Apte, chief mechanical engineer, Port Trust, on June 20, 1996, and after on board fitments, it would be delivered to MBPT in about two to three months, Nair said.
Kale congratulated MDL for launching the ship on schedule and said public sector organisations like MDL could show that they could be equally effective, efficient and productive in the era of liberalisation.
He hoped that with the addition of `Vivek into its existing fleet, the Mumbai Port Trust would be able to give better service to the port users.
