Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new 310-metre dry dock and International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) at Cochin Shipyard on Wednesday.
Set up at an overall cost of Rs 2,800 crore, these infra investments are aligned with the Sagarmala and Maritime India Vision 2030 initiatives, said Madhu S. Nair, Chairman and Managing Director.
With these infrastructure projects, coupled with CSL’s capabilities and existing infra, Kochi can boast of transformation as a truly ‘Global Maritime Hub’. The dry dock is a high-grade strategic asset that can handle critical naval assets and commercial ships in the event of an emergency, he said.
The Rs 1,799-crore dual purpose dry dock can be used both for ship construction as well as for ship repairs. It can accommodate large LNG carriers, Capesize and Suezmax vessels, oil rigs and semi-subs and other large vessels.
ISRF has augmented the nation’s ship repair capacity by around 25 per cent for ships up to 130 metre, as well as in established India as a major ship repair centre in this part of the world. Its close proximity to the international sea route connecting South-East Asia to West Asia would be a key attraction for international ships, thereby, making Kochi a global destination for ship repairs, he said.
According to the CMD, ISRF is aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision to create ship repair clusters. The ‘Kochi Cluster’ will trigger significant ship repair, ancillary services, on international scale on the lines of the Dubai and Singapore clusters, he said.
The yard is set to install the new 600-tonne Goliath gantry crane (much larger than the two existing orange gantry cranes) over the dock in the next few weeks, he added.