Keel laid for tugs at Hindustan Shipyard Limited

Visakhapatnam: The keel laying ceremony of two 10 tonne Bollard Pull Tugs ‘Ananta’ and ‘Atal’ out of a series of six tugs, being built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) for Indian Navy, was conducted on Wednesday. Keels for both the tugs were laid by senior workmen of HSL in the presence of Director (Shipbuilding), Commodore AS Mitra HSL, senior officials of Navy, Classification Society and senior officials of HSL.

Earlier, keels laid for two tugs of the series of six were laid in last August. With this new two keels, the HSL had completed keel laying of all six 10 tonnes tugs. The tugs with length of 25 metres and breadth of eight metres are capable of developing 10 tonnes Bollard Pull and can operate at a speed of 12 knots. The tugs also suitable for ocean going duties and fitted with the state-of-art fire-fighting equipment.

The construction of all the six tugs is progressing parallelly at HSL. The yard is putting efforts to float all six tugs by January 2018 and deliver the same by March 2018, the HSL management said. With the current production rate, the shipyard is poised to lead the Indian Shipbuilding Industry within a short span of time, the management added.