Recently, with the successful berthing of HSC Parali, the International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) of Cochin Shipyard in Kochi, the state-owned shipyard of India, has started its commercial operation.
The Cochin Shipyard International Ship Repair Center, at a cost of about Rs. 9.7 billion ($120 million), has a 6,000-ton shiplift, transfer system, six workstations, and about 1,400 meters of berths, and will be able to accommodate the repair of seven 130-meter vessels at the same time. The shipbuilder said the new ship repair facility is a modernization and expansion of the existing ship repair capacity at Cochin Shipyard and is “a step towards transforming Cochin Shipyard into a global ship repair center”, which will increase India’s ship repair capacity by about 25%.
On January 17th this year, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was in Kochi for the inauguration of a 310 m long new dry dock plus a brand new ship repair facility at Cochin Shipyard.During the ceremony, Modi said, “The new International Ship Repair Center at Cochin Shipyard will transform Cochin into Asia’s largest ship repair center —– Cochin today has India’s largest dry dock, which will greatly enhance the shipyard’s capacity”.
The new dock at Cochin Shipyard is stepped, 310 meters long, 75/60 meters wide, 13 meters deep, with a draft of 9.5 meters, and cost Rs. 18 billion (about $210 million). Cochin Shipyard said the new dock is a flagship project that “reflects India’s engineering prowess”. The new dock will be fitted with a 600-ton Goliath gantry crane, which will greatly enhance the Cochin Shipyard’s construction capabilities. With a design life of 100 years, the new dock will enable India to build large aircraft carriers of up to 70,000 tons displacement.