It was a landmark day for the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd.
Credit: MDL, Mumbai
Mumbai: The history of Mazagon Dock dates back to 1774, when a small dry dock was constructed in Mazagon.
Today, the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) has emerged as one of the finest shipyards of the world.
On Tuesday, the MDL celebrates the completion of 250 years, commemorating an extraordinary journey, spanning over two and a half centuries.
From a humble beginning as a small dry dock in 1774, to its incorporation in 1934, and subsequently, its stewardship under the Government of India since 1960, completion of 250 years of MDL is a milestone that marks a testament of resilience, growth and enduring legacy.
The MDL organized a series of events including inauguration of adjacent land acquired from Mumbai Port Authority, launch of prototype of indigenous midget submarine ‘Arowana’, commissioning of Solar Electric Hybrid boat, release of a commemorative coin marking the 250 years and conducting a day-long technical seminar.
Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane was the chief guest on the occasion.
“This facility would be developed for simultaneous construction and outfitting of new builds, repairs / refits of various types of vessels. The new infrastructure will give adequate bandwidth to MDL for simultaneous execution of various projects,” an MDL press statement said.
MDL has successfully completed the platform design and hull of the midget submarine named ‘Arowana’ which was launched by the Defence Secretary.
MDL has been building submarines since 1984 with foreign design. MDL has also commenced the design and development of an indigenous conventional submarine. Midget Submarine is being developed as a proof of concept. The team is parallelly working on development of design of full scale conventional submarines by 2028.
The Defence secretary also commissioned the Solar Electric Hybrid boat with top speed of 11 Knots designed and co-developed with indigenous technology partners. The running cost is almost 1/10 th of a diesel boat and also has a very low maintenance cost.
Aramane also inaugurated the Technical Seminar on “Emerging Technologies and Future of Shipbuilding”.