The Indian Navy’s first indigenously built Floating Dock (FDN-2), developed by Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T), was launched at L&T’s shipyard in Kattupalli on Tuesday.
The Floating Dock is 185 metres long and 40 metres wide and will enable docking of all kinds of vessels, including Naval ships and submarines (excepting aircraft carriers and tankers) of up to 8,000 tonnes displacement, with draughts of up to seven metres, during both day and night.
The Navy already has one Floating Dock; this would be its second such facility, Vice Admiral DM Deshpande, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition, Indian Navy, told reporters after his wife, Anjali Deshpande, launched the dock. FDN-2 will be based in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and will enhance the Navy’s technical repair infrastructure.
“We already have a floating dry dock there. We are looking at expansion in Port Blair, and therefore the number of assets in terms of ships and submarines operating from there, as well as for the ships which are based there. This (FDN-2) adds much more capability and flexibilty to undertake repair and maintenance works,” Mr. Deshpande said. FDN-2 was designed and built by L&T at a cost of ₹ 468 crore.
This is L&T’s first Naval order. “It will be delivered in two to three months at Port Blair,” said B. Kannan, head of shipbuilding, L&T. “It was 100% designed in-house. It’s a big utility vessel with special functions. We will do trials at sea both at Kattupalli and Port Blair,” he said.
