Mazagon Dock Limited

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Mazagon Dock Limited is India’s main shipyard. It manufactures warships for the Indian Navy as well as offshore platforms for oil exploration.

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[edit] Activities

The activities at the yard are shipbuilding, repairs to ships, and fabrication of offshore structures. It has manufacturing facilities situated at Mumbai and Nhava.

The yard has the capability to build warships, submarines, and merchant ships up to 30,000 metric tons of deadweight (DWT). It can also fabricate well head platforms, process and production platforms and jack up rigs for oil exploration.

[edit] Leander class frigate

The first warship built by the yard was the Leander-class frigate INS Nilgiri, launched on 15 October 1966 and commissioned on 23 June 1972. Five more frigates in this class were built in the next nine years for the Indian Navy.[1]

[edit] Godavari class frigate

While the construction of the Leander-class series was coming to an end, the Indian Navy came up with a design for a new frigate. While the Leander class was built with British collaboration this new frigate was to be a wholly Indian design. It was larger and could embark two helicopters and was called the Godavari class frigate after the first ship INS Godavari. Two more ships of this class, the INS Ganga and INS Gomati, were built.[2]

[edit] Delhi class destroyers

Next to follow were the Project-15 Delhi class destroyers. These were powered by gas turbines and displaced 6,700 tonnes. The first of the class, INS Delhi, was launched in February 1991 and commissioned on 15 November 1997. The second, INS Mysore, was commissioned on 2 June 1999 followed by the last ship in the series, INS Mumbai, on 22 January 2001.[3]

[edit] Other vessels

The yard has built two corvettes for the Navy. These corvettes are small warships which do not displace more than about 1,500 tonnes. The first of the series, INS Khukri, was commissioned on 23 August 1989, and the second, INS Kuthar, on 7 June 1990. The third and fourth, INS Kirpan and INS Khanjar were launched at GRSE.[4]

Among other ships for the navy, the yard has built three fast missile boats, a cadet training ship, and constructed submarines under collaboration with HDW of Germany.

[edit] Current and future projects

The yard is building three new generation stealth warships for the Navy, named Project-17 frigates. The first three ships in this class have already been launched: the INS Shivalik (18 April 2003), the INS Satpura (4 June 2004), and the third and last INS Sahyadri (27 May 2005).

Construction of three more ships in the Delhi class continued with the INS Kolkata which was launched in 30 March 2006.

[edit] Vessels for the Coast Guard

The yard also builds Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) for the Indian Coast Guard. These vessels are specialised ships built for patrolling, policing, search and rescue operations in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the country.

They have the capability to fight oil spills and fires. Each of these ships carries a helicopter on board. Seven such ships have been delivered to the Coast Guard.

[edit] Floating police stations

Based on the order by the BSF the yard started construction of floating Border Out Posts (BOPs). Essentially these BOPs are floating police stations, each with four high-speed boats. The yard has delivered 9 out of an order for 14 BOPs.

[edit] Vessels for the private sector

The yard has built a wide range of vessels for the commercial sector, including offshore supply vessels (OSVs), harbour utility vessels and crafts such as tug boats, dredgers, water tankers, and passenger/cargo vessels. It has also built and supplied trawlers and barges, support vessels, a floating jetty and floating cranes.

This is the only yard in India that supplies its vessels to overseas customers.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "F 33 Nilgiri Class", Global Security.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-08. 
  2. ^ "F 20 Godavari Class Frigate", Global Security.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-08. 
  3. ^ "D Delhi Class Destroyer", Global Security.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-08. 
  4. ^ "P 49 Khukri Class", Global Security.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.