Vadyar Boats gets Garden Reach order

By K. T. Jagannathan

CHENNAI, AUG. 26. Vadyar Boats, a low profile and long-serving family-owned city-based company, has done the protagonists of Swedeshi movement proud by delivering in time a couple of entirely indigenously-built rescue boats to the state-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd. of Calcutta.

The rescue boats, ostensibly ordered on behalf of the Indian Navy, conform to exacting Naval standards and correspond to the stringent rules and regulations of Solas, according to Mr. P.A. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, of the company.

These are closed high-speed boats and designed to perform an assortment of duties ranging from captains boat to lifeboats and transportation of men and material, among others. They are also capable of sailing in difficult sea conditions.

The boats are fitted with 200 BHP TAMD 41 P Volvo Penta Marine inboard diesel engine, gear box shafting and propeller. This system is easy to maintain. Availability of spares is not a problem. The boats are also fitted with stainless steel 316 grade lifting hooks systems connected with heavy duty morse cables and preventive locks. This is primarily to ensure fail safe operation of the boats during launching/recovery. The boats can also be launched from a height of 3 metres above water in case of emergency.

The company claims that these boats are unsinkable under all conditions. Further, the canopy is of double skin filled with polyurethane foam. This provides the self-righting property for the boat, facilitating it to return to the original position from a position of 180 degree.

These boats are 6.5 metre long. An intelligent selection of the propulsion system and lay out inside have all helped to make the inside spacious. Each boat costs around Rs. 28 lakhs.

Established in late 1960s, Vadyar Boats is, perhaps, the only one in the country to develop and build lifeboats indigenously. Until 1984, it was making open boats. Once, new Solas rules came into being, closed boats had become the order of the day. Vadyar Boats, too, followed suit after spending on R&D. It had so far supplied over 400 life boats to local as well overseas ship yards.

The company - which had not seen orders - save for the two it had supplied to Garden Reach - in the last couple of years, is toying with the idea of selling a part of the unused land to raise funds for its update exercise.

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