File:Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier dry dock inaugurated at Mumbai by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (2).jpg

English: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the new Aircraft Carrier Dry Dock at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. The Aircraft Carrier Dock is capable of accommodating INS Vikramaditya, IAC-I, the indigenous Aircraft Carrier under construction at Cochin Shipyard Limited and ships with tonnage upto 90000 tonnes, making it the largest dry dock of the Indian Navy.

Measuring in at 281 meters long, 45 meters wide and 17 meters deep, the construction of the dry dock required innovative and extreme engineering methods. While most Dry Docks are constructed by excavating into the land and then providing access to the sea, the Aircraft Carrier Dry Dock is built into the sea, a technique requiring 38 caissons (watertight steel sections) to drain out sea water before construction could commence.

The dry dock has over one kilometre of berthing space with sectioning to allow multiple warships to be docked. This will result in faster turnaround time for maintenance and refit routines of Indian Navy’s Warships. The dry dock can be drained completely in just 2.5 hours and filled in 1.5 hours. Other features of the project include a ramp for heavy vehicles to access the dock floor, a 33.5 MVA power supply and under dock floor drainage arrangement to remove any seepage.

Started in 2010, the Aircraft Carrier Dock was a unique project which overcame numerous challenges owing to difficulties encountered due to the sheer size and scale of the project as well as the complex technique required for construction into the sea. Such is the scale of the project that over one and half times the amount of concrete used in the Bandra – Worli Sea Link and the same amount of steel used in Eiffel Tower went into its construction.