Navy to get its biggest dry dock on Saturday

iv Kumar

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Tribune News Service

Mumbai, September 24

The Navy’s biggest dry dock with capacities for accommodating an aircraft carrier will be inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Mumbai on Saturday, according to naval officials here.

The dry dock, which has been described as state-of-the-art by the Navy, took around a decade to complete. “Construction of the dry dock was a challenge since it is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on three sides,” according to an official from the private Hindustan Construction Company that built the facility. During the construction, a coffer dam was built to keep the sea water out.

It took five lakh tonnes of concrete to build the facility at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, according to the naval officials. It can presently accommodate India’s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and the under-construction INS Vikrant (being built indigenously).

Alternatively, the dry dock can service two smaller warships in place of an aircraft carrier, according to officials here. Dry docks are mainly used for the repair and maintenance of ships. After a ship sails into the dry dock, the water inside is pumped out allowing the vessel to rest on dry land. The dry dock has eight pumps that can be used to evacuate water from the dry dock in 2.5 hour.

Once filled up, the dry dock has a capacity to hold water equivalent to 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools.