Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has set the course to construct a larger and more dynamic dry dock. The Chief Minister of Kerala & Honble Minister of shipping conducted the ground breaking for the third dry dock of the company to be located in the northern end of the shipyard. The new dock will have a length of 310 m. It is a stepped dock with a width of 75M at the wider part and 60M at the narrower part. It will have a depth of 13M and a drought of 9.5M. This will be the largest and more dynamic dock in terms of vessels that can be docked. The stepped dock concept enables longer vessels to fill the length of dock; and wider, shorter vessels and maritime equipments such as jack up rigs to be repaired /constructed at the wider part of the dock.
On a separate note, the shipyard has launched two 500 Pax capacity passenger vessels constructed for A&N Administration. The vessels were launched by Smt Kanchan Gadkari, by pressing of buttons which opened the valves of the drydock gate in CSL, in the presence of the Minister of Shipping, Shri Nitin Gadkari and Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala. Prof K V Thomas, MP, presided over the function. Shri Madhu S Nair, CMD, CSL, Shri Sureshbabu N V, Director (Operations), CSL , Shri Paul Ranjan, Director (Finance), Shri Bejoy Bhasker, Director (Technical) and officials of A&N administration were present on the occasion.
These two modern ships built to the highest standards of the Indian Register of Shipping and American Bureau of Shipping and meeting the requirements of a class V passenger vessel as per Indian Merchant Shipping rules 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 5 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 vessel, this sector would get much needed support.
