India’s 1st Aircraft Carrier Dry Dock – Free PDF Download

BOMBAY DOCKYARD

• Bombay Dockyard—also known as Naval Dockyard—is an Indian shipbuilding yard at Mumbai.
• The Yard was established in 1735 by the East India Company.
• Lovji Wadia oversaw the building of Bombay Dock, Asia’s first dry dock, in 1750.
• In 1811 the British Royal Navy took over the Yard.

WHAT IS A DRY DOCK

• A dry dock is a berth where maintenance and repair works take place.
• These are not possible when the ship is in water.
• It is flooded to allow the ship to enter the berth, after which the water is removed so that the works on it can be carried out.

• The naval dockyard in Mumbai has 3 other dry dock-

1. Bombay Dock,
2. Duncan dock,
3. Cruiser Graving Dock.

• All dating back at least 150 years.
• Vikramaditya could not dock at any of these facilities.

ABOUT THE DOCK

• The dimensions of the Navy’s largest dry dock are 281- m long, 45-m wide and almost 17-m deep.
• It is designed chiefly for INS Vikramaditya.
• When INS Vikramaditya is not docked here, it can accommodate two smaller vessels.

• The project was awarded to Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) on April 12, 2010.
• The design, inspired by a Singapore dock, saves space on land because it is built into the sea.
• The state-of-the-art dry dock, constructed over 9 years at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore.
• Around 8,000 metric tonne of steel forms the core of the project.

BENEFITS

• It will not only reduce vessel maintenance expenses that the Navy incurs at private shipyards,
• But will also enhance defense capability to load advanced arms and ammunition onto out premiere warships,” said an officer.
• The dock, equipped with robotic machinery, can overhaul ships in quick succession.
• It has a facility to enable container trucks carrying ship spare parts to station themselves along repair bays,
• So that engineers don’t have to waste time procuring the parts from a distance.

ABOUT INS VIKRAMADITYA

• Originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987.
• The carrier served with the Russian Navy (as Admiral Gorshkov) before being decommissioned in 1996.
• The carrier was purchased by India on 20 January 2004 at a price of $2.35 billion.
• The ship successfully completed her sea trials in July 2013 and aviation trials in September 2013.
• Finally INS Vikramaditya was commissioned on 16 November 2013 at a ceremony held in Russia

Latest Burning Issues | Free PDF

Sharing is caring!