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V. Sajeev Kumar

Hindustan Shipyard, Tebma respond to construction tender

Kochi , May 8

The Cochin Port Trust is going ahead with its proposal to acquire two new 45-tonne cycloidal propulsion tugs at a cost of Rs 70 crore in replacement of the existing old tugs.

Hindustan Shipyard Ltd and the Chennai-based Tebma Shipyard have responded to the tender floated by the port for the construction of the tugs.

The financial bids of the tenders will be opened by the end of this month and the work order could be placed by the middle of June, senior port officials said.

The existing two tugs - MT Kodungallur and MT Cochin - have completed their life span of 20 years and their pulling capacity have been reduced considerably due to continuous operations and old age.

The power output of these tugs has been considerably reduced to 22-25 tonnes, resulting in greater time consumption for manoeuvring ships in the port.

According to the port officials, the large vessels calling at the port are mainly tanker ships of 60,000-1,15,000 DWT and are fitted with fuel-efficient engines. The manoeuvring area inside the port area is limited, reducing the manoeuvrability of these ships. Such ships are navigated safely with the help of cycloidal propulsion tugs due to fast and quick response and ability to provide equal thrust in all directions on demand. The controls are foolproof and there is hardly any occasion to report failure of control systems, the officials added.

According to them, the crude-laden vessels arriving at Cochin Oil Terminal require a pull to the tune of 90-110 tonnes, which is achieved by deploying three tugs at a time. This affects the shipping operations; hence the shipping movements are to be programmed according to the availability of the tugs, which affects the turnaround time of the ships. This can be avoided if higher capacity tugs could be deployed in the port, the officials said.

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