Dry dock works to begin today

Kochi: Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, will lay the foundation stone for the country’s largest dry dock at Cochin Shipyard on Tuesday at a function to be attended by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The new dock is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,799 crore. It will be 310 metres long, 75 m wide with a depth of 13 metres and drought of 9.5 m.

The dock will be designed to handle both ship building and repairs and will have international safety standards. Currently, the Cochin Shipyard has two dry docks.

The new dock will also have a water treatment plant and Green Belt Development. With the new facility, Cochin Shipyard will be able to build specialised and technologically advanced large vessels like LNG carriers, drill ships, jack-up rigs, large dredgers, aircraft carriers for Indian Navy and high-end research vessels. It will also help make Kochi a maritime hub for all repair needs in South-East Asia.

The project is expected to be completed by May 2021 and generate employment opportunities for about 2000 people.

The dry dock will give an impetus to ‘Make in India’ initiative and raise the country’s share in global shipbuilding to two percent. India currently occupies 0.66 per cent share in global shipbuilding market.

The commercial ship building industry in the country is worth '3,200 crore and focuses primarily on small-medium sized offshore vessels and cargo/bulk carriers.

During the function, two 500 capacity passenger vessels built by CSL for Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration will also be launched.