On January 31, India's state-owned shipyard Cochin Shipyard announced that it had signed a contract with a European customer for the construction of 1+1 hybrid service operating vessels (SOVs) for the offshore wind renewable energy market. The order is worth 5 billion rupees (about 4.5 yuan.)3.3 billion yuan), which is scheduled to be delivered in 2026.
Designed by the Norwegian ship design company Vard As, this type of SOV is dedicated to the offshore wind industry and can accommodate 54 technicians and crew.
The ship has a built-in dynamic positioning system; Fully Electric Cycloidal Propulsion Systemd, Motion-Compensated Gangway System, and 3D Crane; It has the Det Norske Veritas "Clean Design" and the latest "Cyber Secure" class symbol. The hybrid propulsion system uses a 3 1300 kWh diesel generator set and a large lithium battery pack with significant emission reductions.
Cochin Shipyard is engaged in the construction, repair, upgrade and refit of all types of vessels and is currently constructing 2 Commissioning Service Operating Vessels (CSOVs) for another European customer. The order was announced in November 2022, and the cost of a single ship is 4$400 million (at the prevailing exchange rate).
Last month (17 January), the inauguration ceremony of the new dock at the Cochin Shipyard and the International Ship Repair Centre was held in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As the largest shipyard in India, the shipyard previously had the largest dock size of 255x43x9 meters, with two gantry cranes of 300 tons and 150 tons, which can build ships up to 110,000 deadweight tons.
According to reports, the new dock is a stepped type, with a length of 310 meters, a width of 75 60 meters, a depth of 13 meters, and a draft of 95 meters at a cost of 1,800 crore (about 15.).600 million RMB). The new dock will be fitted with a 600-tonne Goliath gantry crane, which will greatly enhance the construction capacity of the Cochin shipyard. The new dock, with a design life of 100 years, will allow India to build large aircraft carriers with a displacement of up to 70000 tons.
The new International Ship Repair Centre (ISRF) at Cochin Shipyard cost about Rs 9.7 billion (about 8.).400 million RMB), with a 6,000-ton ship lift, a transfer system, six workstations and about 1,400 meters of berths, which can accommodate seven 130-meter-long ships for maintenance at the same time.
The new ship repair facility is a modernization and expansion of Cochin Shipyard's existing ship repair capacity and is "a step in transforming Cochin Shipyard into a global ship repair hub" and will increase India's ship repair capacity by about 25 percent, according to Cochin Shipyard. The shipyard has set a target of doubling its turnover within four years.