India's First Indigenously Built Floating Dock Goes On Stream

Chennai: The country's first indigenously built floating dock FDN-2 for the Indian Navy, was formally launched today at the L&T Shipbuilding Yard at Kattupalli near Chennai.

The floating dock, awarded to Larsen and Toubro by the Ministry of Defence in May 2015, was to design and build at an order value of Rs 468 crore.

The floating dock will be delivered to Indian Navy, Port Blair in the coming months after undergoing a series of "harbour trials," Larsen and Toubro Shipbuilding, Managing Director, and CEO, Vice Admiral (retd) B Kannan said.

"It is the first order that L&T had bagged.. In two to three months (time) we will be delivering it to Port Blair (of Indian Navy).. We have infused a lot of digital technologies during design and construction of the dock," he told reporters.

"Once operationalised, it (dock) would enhance the technical repair infrastructure of the Navy for ships based at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as for visiting Naval ships," he said.

The floating dock was launched by Anjali Deshpande, the wife of Vice Admiral D M Deshpande, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition at a function.

The Floating Dock is an indigenously built designed and built platform with state-of-the-art machinery and control systems capable of docking ships of upto 8,000 tonne displacement.

The dock covers facilitate "repair" and "refit" activities even in inclement weather conditions.

The company had invested in building state-of-the-art facilities at Kattupalli and look keen to continue service to the Indian Navy, Larsen and Toubro, Senior Executive Vice President and Whole Time Director (Designate) - Defence, J D Patil said. 

Larsen and Toubro had taken up repairs and refits of Naval and Coast Guard ships regularly and has so far delivered six refit ships (including largest Logistics Tanker Ship INS Jyoti) from Kattupalli, he said.

To a query, he said, "At this point of time, the management (of Larsen and Toubro) has taken decision to engage only in Defence orders.. We are hopeful of getting more such orders."

At any point of time, six ships can be docked at the Shipyard for taking up refit or repair work, he said.