Navy inks Rs 20 crore contract with global firm to lift INS Betwa

NEW DELHI: The

Navy

has inked a contract worth almost Rs 20 crore with an international salvage firm to lift the 3,850-tonne frigate INS Betwa, which had tipped over at the Mumbai naval dockyard on December 6, killing two sailors and injuring 14 others.

Concurrently, the Navy has also completed its board of inquiry (BoI) headed by a Rear Admiral into the unprecedented mishap, during which the Brahmaputra-class frigate “slipped from her dock blocks”, tilted and then crashed flat on her left (port) side while being undocked during a maintenance refit, said sources.

“Strict action will be taken against the personnel, including the dock-masters, found guilty of lapses. But the BoI findings will have to be confirmed by higher authorities, first by the

Western Naval Command

at Mumbai and then by Navy headquarters in New Delhi,” said a source.

With the main naval dry dock at Mumbai blocked by INS Betwa, the Navy wants the frigate to be salvaged and made battle-ready to re-join the fleet as soon as possible. The salvage firm,

Resolve Marine Group

, has sought a month to mobilise its resources from different places as well as build the “required rigs and sponsons” for the complicated operation.

“It should take another month after that to make the frigate upright,” said the source. The mishap apparently occurred due to the miscalculation of the “load distribution equilibrium” required in the complex and delicate undocking procedure, leaving the frigate heavily damaged with at least 25% flooding in its compartments, as was reported by

TOI

earlier.

The incident occurred when the process of flooding the dry dock was in progress after completion of the frigate’s “underwater repair package”. At that time, the dock also had missile boat INS Pralay, a tug and a Caisson lock-gate (large floating iron) in close vicinity of INS Betwa. Commissioned in July 2004, INS Betwa had begun the two-year medium maintenance refit at the dockyard in April last year.