With the 3rd drydock, CSL will become a ship-repair hub.

The Rs.1,799 cr drydock, with a 100 year design life, will be among the largest in the country. To be readied for ops by Jun 2024.

What is a drydock?

A drydock is an enclosed basin that can be flooded to allow a ship to be floated in, followed by locking shut the entrance gate and then drained to allow that ship to come to rest on a dry platform. This functionality makes drydocks the most precious asset of any shipyard that deals with building as well as repairing of large ships.

Highlights of the drydock

* Can hold 242 mn litres of water which is more than the capacity 96 Olympic-size swimming pools.

* 70,000 MT of steel forms were used, which is almost 9.5 times the quantity of steel used for construction of the Eiffel Tower.

* About 7.2 lakh tonnes of concrete used in construction, which is 1.25 times the concrete used in the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

* About 5,000 RCC piles with diameters ranging from 600 mm to 1,200 mm were installed, which is almost 26 times the number of piles installed in Burj Khalifa.

* About 5,50,000 cum of excavated material disposed off at sea.

* Cost Rs.1,799 cr

* Design life 100 yrs.

* Dimensions 310 m x 75/60 m x 13 m.

* Draught 9.5 m

Key features 

* Stepped layout to accommodate large and wide vessels

* Can take specialised and technologically advanced vessels

* Can handle vessels up to 70,000 tons docking displacement

*Apart from the 600-ton gantry crane, it also has two jib cranes of 75 ton and 45 ton capacity

Gantry crane

* The new drydock will be equipped with a gantry crane of 600-ton lifting capacity, which makes it the biggest when compared with the existing cranes of the yard. The crane has a span of 134 m and maximum height of 81 m. It is equipped with an upper trolley with two 300-ton hooks and a lower trolley with one 400-ton hook. Total weight of the crane is 3,667 tons.

* Contract for turnkey supply, design, manufacture, transport, installation, erection, testing and commissioning of gantry crane was issued to South Korea's Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.

* Crane components were dispatched from South Korea on 17 Sep 2023 and the vessel arrived at CSL on 09 Oct 2023. Hyundai Samho will complete installation and commissioning of crane, which will be ready for operation at CSL's new drydock by May 2024.

Tailpiece.

Got up at a half past 5, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10.

The maid was at work today. She cleared up the 'diyas' post Karthika celebrations.

A quiet Tuesday otherwise.