Cochin Shipyard Ltd., India’s biggest state-owned shipbuilder by dock capacity, will start working on a Rs. 1,799-crore dry dock, its third, recently. The listed firm is looking to expand capacity to tap the potential for constructing and repairing specialised and technologically advanced large vessels, including aircraft-carriers.

With a Rs. 970-crore international ship repair facility being developed next door at the Cochin Port Trust, Kochi will turn into a one-stop maritime hub for repairing all vessels calling at Indian ports, Chairman and Managing Director Madhu Nair toldBusinessLine .

The new dry dock will generate employment opportunities for some 2,000 people (direct and indirect) in the core shipbuilding and ancillary sectors . It will also help develop a strong ancillary base in the country for shipbuilding, promote adoption of world class technology and shipbuilding skills and training of youth, he said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will break ground for the dry dock — the second largest in India and the largest and most dynamic amongst its three docks in terms of ships docked — recently.

The mini-ratna PSU said the new dry will contribute towards the target of increasing India’s share of the global shipbuilding industry to 2 per cent from 0.4 per cent, now.

Cochin Shipyard sold shares in an initial public offering (IPO) in August 2017 to part finance a Rs. 2,769-crore expansion plan comprising construction of a Rs. 1,799-crore new dry dock and a Rs. 970-crore international ship repair facility.

The new dry dock would be a ‘stepped’ dock with a length of 310 metre (the existing dry docks are 270 metres long), width of 75 metre at the widest part and 60 metres at the narrower part, and a depth of 13 metre with a draught of up to 9.5 metre.

It will be equipped with one 600-tonne gantry crane, two LLTT cranes each with a capacity of 75 tonnes with an option to add another 600-tonne gantry crane. The dock floor is designed to take a load of 600 tonne/m.

The stepped dock will enable longer vessels to fill the length of the dock and wider, shorter vessels such as jack-up rigs to be built or repaired at the wider part.

The new dry dock will help Cochin diversify its product portfolio to build large, complex and technology intensive vessels such as LNG vessels, jack up rigs, drill ships, dredgers, a second indigenous aircraft-carrier of much larger capacity than the one it is building for the Indian Navy, high-end research vessels and repair of offshore platforms.

The new dry dock can accommodate aircraft-carriers of 70,000 tonnes docking displacement and tankers and merchant vessels of 55,000 tonnes docking displacement.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd was awarded the turnkey contract for the new dry dock for Rs. 1,298.76 crore, which is expected to be completed by May 2021.

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