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Navy’s new Floating Dock for Warships and Submarines launched near Chennai

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 6/20/2017 9:18:55 PM

Larsen & Toubro has announced the launch of a Floating Dock (FDN-2) designed and built for the Indian Navy at the company’s greenfield shipyard at Kattupalli, near Chennai.

Formally lowered into the waters of the Bay of Bengal, the Floating Dock project was commissioned by the Defence ministry in May 2015 for an order value of Rs. 468 crores. The Floating Dock will be delivered at Port Blair well within contracted schedule, reaffirming L&T’s capabilities to execute and deliver defence projects on time using Indian design, indigenous technologies and construction skills.

On completion of its launch at Kattupalli, FDN-2 would be put through a series of harbour trials before delivery to the Navy. Once operationalised, the project will facilitate the technical repair infrastructure of the Navy for ships based at the Andaman & Nicobar Islands as well as for visiting Naval ships.

An L&T press statement quoting S N Subrahmanyan, President, Larsen & Toubro, said: “While winning our first mandate from the Indian Navy was satisfying, I am particularly delighted that we have also been able to execute and deliver the FDN-2 well within schedule.”

The Floating Dock, which is the first Naval shipbuilding project for L&T, is 185m long and 40m wide, and is designed for docking Indian Naval ships and submarines of up to 8000 T displacement with draughts of up to 7 m, during both day and night, the statement said adding that simultaneous docking of multiple ships, and off-center docking options will also be feasible.

L&T has also been mandated by the Coast Guard to design and build seven Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), the statement added.