Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) delivered the first ever modern Cable Laying Vessel built for Kokusai Cable Ship Co. Ltd. (KCS)Japan, last Friday. The high-technology ‘KDDI Cable Infinity’ is meant for subsea operation and cable installation and repair works of optical cables as well as power cables.
This is the biggest ever vessel, price-wise as well as length-wise, built by Colombo Dockyard in its journey of shipbuilding excellence and the first ever ship built ‘in its class’ from Sri Lanka to Japan.
Gracing the occasion Minister of Ports and Shipping and Southern Development, Sagala Rathnayaka said the foreign exchange and employment opportunities are more important for a country to achieve a sustainable economy. Thus this kind of challenges needs to be taken which in turn assist the development of the country and save the foreign exchange spent on them.
He also said that the ministry would try to persuade the removal of the prior experience condition which at present needs to be fulfilled by a ship building company to bid on an order.
“We are so proud of the Colombo Dockyard for building this without any prior experience in building this kind of ships and we believe that the CDPLC is capable of taking new challenges,” he said.
Accounting for the geographical location of the country, development of the shipping industry is vital for the economic development whereas the Colombo Dockyard plays a major role in developing the shipping industry of the country.
“We believe that we will achieve an investment of USD 20 billion from the Port City. Thus we will be able to increase the per capita income of the country by about USD 1,000. We believe that this would assist us in the future and in order to do that, the shipping industry of the nation has to be developed,” Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, Patali Champika Ranawaka said.
The Managing Director, CDPLC, D.V Abeysinghe said that among many other competitors from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, the CDPLC was awarded this for the best performance showed by them in building ships.
“The KCS trusted us even though we didn’t have any prior experience in building cable laying vessels,” he said.
Abeysinghe also said that the yard wants to bid for a dredger which Sri Lanka Land and Development Corporation (SLLRDC) is to buy.The dredger is to be used for sea sand mining to meet the growing requirements of the construction industry as sand stocks on land get depleted.
However a contract condition specifying previous building experience restricted the CDPLC from bidding for the dredger deal.
“We would like this condition removed because if we don’t get the first ship in any type of ship building activity, we will never gain the experience to build them,” he said.
The KDDI Cable Infinity built within two years by the CDPLC is based on a design supplied by VARD Designs, Norway. The vessel has many special features including low resistance hull lines designed for higher speed and low fuel consumption.
The CDPLC, established in 1973, collaborated with Onomichi Dockyard Co.Ltd of Japan since 1993. Having manufactured about 243 ships, they have exported about 70, to countries like India, Myanmar, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.They excel in ship repairing, ship building and heavy engineering.
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