Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has signed a contract, valued at `468 crore, with the Ministry of Defence for the engineering of a floating dock for the Indian Navy (FDN).
The floating dock is expected to significantly enhance the support infrastructure of the navy for docking of warships and submarines for repairs and refits.
Larsen & Toubro Heavy Engineering president and Member of the Board Mr MV Kotwal said: “In keeping with Government’s ‘Make in India’ thrust, complete design and engineering of FDN will be undertaken in-house at L&T’s Warship Design Centre.
“The floating dock will be capable of docking naval ships and submarines of up to 8,000t displacement with draughts up to 7m, during day and night.”
“The dock will conform to international norms and will incorporate fully automated Ballast Control System.
“The FDN will be self-sufficient, catering to the dockside services requirements of docked and berthed warships.”
L&T is already executing a MoD contract for the design and construction of 54 fast Interceptor Boats (IBs) for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG). 27 IBs have already been delivered so far to ICG with the latest boat having been delivered two years ahead of schedule. L&T is targeting to complete delivery of all boats well ahead of schedule.
The floating dock contract for FDN comes to L&T on the back of a recent order for the design and construction of seven offshore patrol vessels for the ICG at `1,432 crore.
L&T’s Kattupalli Shipyard near Chennai is specially designed for undertaking simultaneous construction as well as refits of multiple ships and submarines. At present, three naval ships are undergoing medium refits and one coast guard offshore patrol vessel is slated to enter the yard shortly for refit.
With the construction and refit of multiple defence vessels, L&T is now playing a significant role in the creation and upkeep of India’s defence fleet assets.