Port Blair:
Indian Navy's only floating dock, a place on the waves where Navy's ships come for regular maintenance and repair, is based in Port Blair. Most docks for repairing ships are land based but in the earthquake prone Andaman and Nicobar Islands the floating option was considered safe.
Commander AK Sharma, Officer-in-charge of the floating dock says, "Here we carry out docking of war ships, which are positioned here and carry out their maintenance, related to underwater portion. That's how, keeps them float worthy."
The dock is situated just off Port Blair in the beautiful Andaman and Nicobar islands. It length is more than 188 metres and its width is over 40 metres.
This floating dock is second only to an aircraft carrier in size - in fact the only things it cannot dock are aircraft carriers and oil tankers.
When a ship comes for repair or maintenance, the dock's portion is sunk beneath the water. The ship to be repaired floats onto it and then the dock is raised again - leaving the hull of the ship in the open air, making it much, much easier to repair.
Commander Sharma adds, "We ballast the water into those tanks and this dock goes down into the water and thereafter ships are positioned onboard wherein precision is of the order of about 3mm."
Blocks are laid on the dock to suit the profile of each particular ship - up to 3 ships can be floated here at one time. 100 sailors and 7 officers run this dock - and it has proved to be so useful that despite its current cost of around 300 crores, the Navy is likely to acquire another one.