Dutch engineering specialist Royal HaskoningDHV has won contracts worth a total of around €9 million (US$9.5 million) from India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL).
The scope is to provide comprehensive design and project management services for the construction of two new shipbuilding and repair yards in Mumbai.
This project will integrate MDL’s existing shipyard with the two new facilities to create a mega-yard that will include the largest shipbuilding dry dock in India, capable of accommodating the Indian Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers.
Royal HaskoningDHV will support MDL’s expansion plans by providing shipyard planning, geotechnical and environmental surveys and detailed engineering for the two new shipyards, as well as procurement consultancy services and project supervision.
The larger of the two shipyards is the Nhava Yard, a 16-hectare greenfield site across the channel from MDL’s existing shipyard on the island city. This yard will comprise up to 30 buildings, including dry berths, fabrication facilities, workshops, stores, utilities, plant and machinery.
It will also include a giant dry dock expected to measure nearly 600 metres long and 60 metres wide and capable of accommodating large vessels. This makes it suitable for aircraft carriers and the largest Suezmax tankers and bulk carriers.
The Nhava Yard will be used for defence and commercial shipbuilding and repairs and is expected to employ around 1,500 additional people.
The second yard, known as the South Yard Annex, is smaller in size and adjacent to MDL’s existing facility. It will again be a shipbuilding and ship repair yard with a wet-basin-cum-drydock, hard stands, and waterfront jetty with roll-on/roll-off facilities for loading and unloading vessels using a floating dock, barges, or submersibles.
This facility, which houses the former British-built repair facility, with the Clarke’s Basin, has been leased from the Mumbai Port Authority by MDL for 30 years. Around 500 additional people will be employed there.
In addition, both new facilities will result in supporting ancillary industries and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises – from technology start-ups to steelmaking – that will support the yards.