Salvaging Betwa involved complex calculations, rigging

New Delhi, Feb 23: INS Betwa was salvaged to its upright position using complex hydrodymic calculations and rigging, the Indian vy said on Thursday. The guided missile frigate slipped while undocking at the val Dockyard in Mumbai on December 5, 2016 and, according to an Indian vy statement, the initial stabilitsation of the ship was achieved on December 29. After that, on January 16 a contract was signed with Resolve Marine to set the ship upright.

“The Indian vy is confident that with in-house expertise and sustained efforts, the ship will be made fully operatiol by her scheduled date of refit completion, which is by April 2018,” the statement said. The process employed to get the ship on even keel involved “complex hydrodymic calculations and rigging up of intricate measuring and monitoring systems”, the statement said.

As the ship was undergoing major refit and mid-life up-gradation since April 2016, majority of the equipment and machinery had already been removed for routine servicing and replacement with upgraded equipment. The vessel was undergoing a refit at the dry dock in the val dockyard in Mumbai when it slipped during undocking, or the process of re-floating a ship back in water, on December 5, killing two val personnel and injuring 14 others.

The frigate slipped from her dock blocks and tilted. Officials initially said it appeared that the dock block mechanism had failed. A Board of Inquiry headed by Flag Officer, Offshore Defence Advisory Group, Rear Admiral Deepak Bali was ordered to look into the incident. INS Betwa — inducted in the vy in July 2004 — was part of Task Force 54, tasked to evacuate tiols of India as well as those from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Lebanon married to Indian tiols from the conflict zone during the 2006 Lebanon war, as part of Operation Sukoon. (IANS)

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