MINISTER OF STATE FOR SHIPPING CUTS THE FIRST STEEL PLATE FOR 1200 PAX PASSENGER VESSELS IN CSL
Shri Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways cut the first steel plate of Ship No. 23 and Shri N K Premachandran, Honourable Member of Parliament cut the first steel plate of Ship No. 24, the two 1200 Passenger cum 1000 Tonne Cargo Ships contracted to be built for the Andaman & Nicobar Administration.
The Plate cutting ceremony was held on 13 June 2017 at 0900 hrs.
The plate cutting ceremony is the start of physical construction process of ships.
These vessels are designed and built as passenger vessels with electric propulsion system suitable for carrying 1200 passengers and 1000 T cargo for all weather operation on the main land to A&N Island route in India and to be designed for operation as Class III special trade passenger ship engaged on international voyage. These vessels are provided with ‘Safe Return to Port’ – SRtP notation, which provided redundancy for the vessel to reach the nearest designated port, even in case of an exigency.
The basic design of these vessels are by a Kochi based ship design firm M/s SEDS who have teamed up with reputed designers ‘Knud E Hansen’of Denmark. The vessels have been model tested in MARIN, Netherlands.
CSL is currently building two passenger cum cargo ships for the island territory, with 500 passengers and 150 Tonne cargo capacity, which are progressing satisfactorily.
Shri Madhu S Nair, C&MD CSL, in his welcome speech thanked the Ministry for the role it played in arriving at a contract for building these vessels by including this under Make in India Scheme.
Shri Pon Radhakrishnan in his speech reiterated the commitment of the Ministry of Shipping towards the major expansion programmes undertaken in CSL.
The Minister also had an interaction with the trade unions and associations of CSL. During the interaction, the unions voiced their concerns against the IPO proposal of CSL citing that it is the first step towards privatization of the yard. The unions also brought out their concerns regarding lack of sufficient orders for the shipyard. The Honourable Minister categorically assured the unions during the discussion as also during the speech that CSL will not be privatized. The ensuring IPO is in line with the policy of the Government of India and also to raise capital for the expansion plans of CSL.
Shri N K Premachandran, Honourable M.P., representing the Shipyard Employees Union, also spoke on the occasion wherein he appreciated the efforts of the Central Government in awarding the contract to build first of its kind passenger ships to CSL.
Directors, senior officers, supervisors and workmen of CSL participated. Representatives from the A&N Administration, Shipping Corporation of India, Indian Register of Shipping, Lloyds Register, the classification societies and design partners attended the function.
Advocate N Satheesh, Shipyard Employees Federation, Mr John Varghese, Shipyard Employees Organisation, Shri Rajeev T S, Shipyard Employees Sangh, Shri Johnson V C, Shipyard Supervisory Staff Association and Shri Pradeep of Shipyard Officers Association also attended.
During the last financial year, CSL has completed construction of 20 Fast Patrol Vessels built for the Indian Coast Guard – the last one of the series, the 20th vessel was delivered in December, three months ahead of schedule. CSL has also delivered the Deck Cargo/Jacket Launch Barge to M/s National Petroleum Construction Company, Abu Dhabi during the present fiscal.
Apart from the construction of the prestigious Indigenous Aircraft Carrier for the Indian Navy, CSL is also currently building a Technology Demonstration vessel for the Government of India.
