The largest ship in India's maritime history was built at Kochi

Background

Kerala's maritime industry is built around one public sector yard, and its best-known product is the standard exam answer. INS Vikrant, India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, was designed by the Indian Navy's in-house Warship Design Bureau and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, a public sector shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. It was commissioned at Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kochi and is the largest ship ever built in the maritime history of India. The 262-metre-long carrier has a full displacement of close to 45,000 tonnes, and with it India became the sixth country to make a warship bigger than 40,000 tonnes. The ship has 14 decks with 2,300 compartments, carries about 1,500 personnel and a mix of about 30 aircraft, and is powered by four gas turbines totalling 88 MW for a maximum speed of 28 knots. It was built at an overall cost of close to Rs 20,000 crores, with over 100 MSMEs supplying into the project. The ship is named after India's first aircraft carrier, which played a role in the 1971 war.