Colombo Delivers Cable-Laying Vessel

Sri Lanka's Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) delivered its biggest and most sophisticated vessel, the submarine cable-laying ship KDDI Cable Infinity built for Japan's Kokusai Cable Ship Co.

The KDDI Cable Infinity is meant for subsea operation and cable installation and repair works of optical cables as well as power cables. For the handling of power cables, the forward tank has been fitted with a carousel system with a Spooling Arm.

"This is the biggest ever vessel, price-wise as well as length-wise, to be built by CDPLC in its illustrious journey of shipbuilding excellence and the first ever ship built ‘in its class’ from Sri Lanka to Japan," said a statement from CDPLC.

The vessel is specially designed and equipped with a focus on maintaining good sea keeping ability and excellent station keeping performance. Passive roll reduction tanks help minimize the effect of ship rolling.

The vessel has many special features including low resistance hull lines designed for speed and low fuel consumption. The vessel is extremely eco-friendly, enabling high reduction of harmful emissions, waste storage solutions, water ballast treatment, eco-subsea coating etc.

The vessel is diesel electric driven and has optimized power, which is another key feature. Power is provided by four generator sets, developing 2,250 kW each. Three generators out of the four available are sufficient to cope with the highest propulsion power demands, ensuring high reliability.

Transit at economic speed with two engines efficiently running will optimize fuel consumption. The Vessel shall have a bollard pull of 80 tonnes with a range of 10,000 nautical miles and has Dynamic Positioning capability to Class 2 for precision maneuvering.

The basic design and production drawings for the construction are supplied by VARD Designs, Norway. This vessel is being built and is classed by ClassNK and meets the regulatory requirements of the Japanese Government.

This vessel which is 113.1 meters in length, 21.5 meters in breadth, 8.8 m depth, with a maximum load laying draft of approx 7.1 meters has a deadweight carrying capacity of 5,300 DWT and a planned average cruising speed of 14.5 knots with accommodation facilities for 80 persons.