India crossed a major milestone in defence shipbuilding on Wednesday when the maiden indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant was undocked on completion of structural work at the State-owned Cochin Shipyard.
Navy is slated to take delivery of the carrier in end-2018. Senior officials and workers of the yard were present at 2 p.m. when tugs pulled the behemoth, weighing about 26,000 tonnes at the moment, out of the dry dock where it was undergoing construction for about a year-and-a-half after its launch in August, 2013.
The undocking was done after a series of postponements caused by a glitch with the dock gate operation and siltation at the dock mouth. The flooding of the dock and ballasting of the ship had begun on Monday itself. Once the vessel was floated over eight metres of water pumped into the dock, the floodgate was overturned and the carrier was pulled by tugs into the Kochi channel.
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Sources said the carrier will now be outfitted for over a year-and-a-half before the basin trials begin, likely in 2017, succeeded by sea trials ahead of delivery.
“Almost 90 per cent of works below the fourth deck — all underwater works — are over. Cabling, piping, electrical works, and heat and ventilation works will take place now. Delivery of systems and components for the aviation complex designed by the Russian Nevoske design bureau is expected anytime now,” said an official. The undocking is part of the second phase of work on the carrier, which is expected to be over by 2017.