Wednesday, 6 November, 2002, 16:39 GMT
Indian navy loses dry dock
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC correspondent in Calcutta
A huge floating dry dock used by the Indian navy has sunk in the Andaman Islands, hours after a ship which was repaired in it had sailed out to sea, naval officials said.
A senior official in the navy’s far eastern command told the BBC it was “a big loss for us because the floating dry dock had been extensively used for anchorage and repair by large number of combat and non-combat vessels.”
The navy has ordered an enquiry into the disaster.
The floating dry dock, FDN-1, had been stationed in the Andamans since 1987 when it was inducted into the Indian navy.
It was made in Japan in 1983.
For well over two decades, the dry dock served as temporary anchorage for a number of vessels and it provided crucial repair and refit facilities to naval vessels in the Andamans Islands, which has emerged as the HQ of the newly-created far eastern command of the Indian navy since early this year.
Cause unknown
How the floating dry dock sank is still not clear, but naval officials say preliminary enquiries suggest a failure of its pumping system as the cause of the disaster.
When ships are taken into the floating dry dock for repair, huge amounts of sea water are pumped in to float them into the dock.
" We cannot say whether it would be possible to salvage the dry dock "
Naval technicians
The water is then pumped out and repairs are effected in dry conditions.
After repair, water is again pumped in to allow the ship to float out, and the water is then pumped out again.
“But perhaps due to the collapse of the dock’s pumping system, it was not possible to pump out the water after a ship had left the dock early on Wednesday. It seems the dock sank under the weight of the water,” a naval technician told the BBC, again on condition of anonymity.
Eye-witnesses say the tips of the two cranes in the floating dry dock are still visible - but the rest of the dock has settled on the sea floor at a depth of about 20 metres.
The FDN-1 was anchored at Haddow’s Wharf, barely 550 metres from the main Port Blair harbour and barely 100 metres into the sea.
“We cannot say whether it would be possible to salvage the dry dock but if that is possible, refitting would be expensive,” naval technicians said.
Second disaster
The disaster was the second to hit the Indian navy within 24 hours.
Late on Tuesday night , a devastating fire damaged the state-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders in Calcutta, severely damaging their design floor and one production line.
Officials said large numbers of documents were lost.
Employees in the ship building company suggested it could have been a deliberate attempt to destroy some documents.
But a company spokesman said a short circuit had caused the fire, which took hours to control.
An enquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause.