No impact of fire on completion schedule of warship 'Visakhapatnam': Officials

A day after a fire occurred at an under-construction Naval warship at Mazgaon Dockyard here, a senior official Saturday said it would not affect the schedule of the ambitious ‘Project 15-B’ under which four warships are being manufactured. Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. (MDSL), which constructs warships and submarines for the Indian Navy, said the extent of the damage in the Friday fire is being ascertained.

A “minor fire” had broken out in yard 12704 in the dock in south Mumbai at 4 pm, in which a contractual worker died due to asphyxia and burn injuries while another worker suffered “minor burn” injuries. Seeking to allay concerns on whether the fire could delay the timely commissioning of warships, a senior MSDCL official said the project would be executed as per the deadlines.

“The extent of damage is being ascertained. It is, however, confirmed that there will be no effect on the project timelines,” Ashish Singh, chief spokesperson, MDSL, told PTI. The stealth guided missile destroyer ‘Visakhapatnam’ is being built in the yard and is the first of the four such ships under the Rs 29,340-crore ‘Project 15-B’, contracted to MDSL.

Construction of ‘Visakhapatnam’, the new class of stealth destroyers, started in April 2015 and the first of the destroyers is scheduled to be commissioned by 2021. The rest three warships are ‘Mormugao’, ‘Imphal’ and ‘Porbandar’. The ships under the ‘Project 15-B’ feature cutting-edge advanced technology parallel to the best ships of similar class in the world.

The warships under the ‘Project 15-B’ class are 163-metre in length and 17.4-metre at beam, which will be propelled by four gas turbines to achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots. These ships will be equipped to carry two multiple-role helicopters.