India’s state-owned Cochin Shipyard Ltd has started constructing four passenger-cum-cargo vessels for Andaman & Nicobar Administration under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
As per orders placed by the A&N Administration, two of these vessels will have a capacity of 500 persons-cum-150 tonne cargo and the remaining two will have a capacity of 1200 persons-cum-1000 tonne cargo.
The two smaller vessels will be ocean-going for all weather operations, and be employed in Northern and Southern group of A&N Islands or for inter-island services. They will also be capable of making occasional voyages between India’s mainland and the islands. The construction of the two ferries has now started.
The construction of the larger set of vessels is scheduled to start in June 2017. These vessels will ply between the mainland and the islands and will also be capable of making international voyages.
All four ferries, designed by the Danish marine consultancy Knud E. Hansen (KEH) and Smart Engineering & Design Solutions (India) (SEDS), are scheduled to be delivered by 2020.