Indigeniously built Aircraft carrier to be launched on Aug 12

Indian Navy's indigeneously-built aircraft carrier, getting ready at the Cochin Shipyard here, will be launched on August 12 this year by Defence Minister A K Antony.
The carrier will be floated out of the shipyard on August 12 and taken to the repair dock for installing Ski-jump on the vessel after which weapons systems and trials would be held, a top official of the Cochin Shipyard Limited said today.
The ship, the cost of which is estimated to be about 4-5 billion US Dollars, is targetted to be ready for induction by the Navy by January 2018.
Describing the making of the carrier as a 'significant' achievement, CSL Chairman and Managing Director Commodore K Subramaniam, told reporters here that this was the most 'challenging' task the shipyard had undertaken so far.

This was a collaborative effort with the Indian Navy, he said adding "we have done an extremely fine job. We have worked with a lot of commitment and passion in the making of the ship" which weighs 40,000 tonnes, including 20,000 tonnes of steel.
Asked about the second phase of the aircraft carrier, he said negotiations with the Navy are complete and the contract will be signed after getting the cabinet's approval.

CSL had signed the contract for the construction of the aircraft carrier with the Navy in 2007 and the keel laid in February 2009, one of the milestones.

On whether there was delay in the project, he said "we are not very much off the schedule".
The design of the ship is going on concurrently with the construction, so the shipyard is hopeful of delivering the vessel by 2018, he added.
Asked about the challenge the shipyard faced during the construction, the CMD said this was the first time the CSL had constructed a warship. The specifications of the warship and commercial vessels are different.
"We had taken up a huge task starting from the scratch. The shipyard had to undertake lot of R&D for developing welding processes for aircraft carrier's steel", he said.