The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Academy to inaugurate unique `ship on campus' facility

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 12, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Academy to inaugurate unique `ship on campus' facility

Special Correspondent

ONE OF A KIND: The `ship on campus' facility at Vel's Srinivasa College of Engineering, Thalambur, which will be formally inaugurated on February 17. — Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Vels Academy of Maritime Education and Training at Thalambur, off Old Mahabalipuram Road, about 20 km from here, will formally inaugurate its unique `ship on campus' on February 17.

`Ship on campus' is a facility that will help marine engineering students learn the working of a ship's engine and related areas without actually going to a ship, according to Isari K. Ganesh, Chairman of the Academy, which is part of the Vel's Srinivasa College of Engineering.

Dr. Ganesh and Academy director Captain K. Vivekanand said they got a beached ship from Alang (a ship breaking yard in Gujarat), cut it up into several pieces, brought them to Chennai and reassembled the parts to rebuild the entire steel ship.

"It took us one and a half years and Rs.6 crore to complete the job of constructing a fully operational engine and a full simulator facility that works in tandem," Dr. Ganesh told presspersons at a conference held at the `ship on campus' on Saturday.

Captain Vivekanand said the Directorate General of Shipping had asked maritime academies across the country to build such a facility for training cadets enrolled in marine engineering courses.

The `Vels Excellence' is a ship fitted with a 6-cylinder 4-stroke diesel main engine, rated at 2200hp and at 250 rpm.

"It was used in a 3,000 tonne ship. Other than removing the shaft that powers the ship's movement, the whole facility completely resembles a ship, he added.

The simulator facility, which alone cost Rs.1.5 crore, has a computer-driven model of the ship's piping, engines and power generators.

"Using special software and models created by IIT-Kharagpur, we can simulate problems that students might encounter later in mid-sea," Captain Vivekanand said.

The college offers a four-year B.E. (Marine Engineering) course, a one-year training course for B.E. Mechanical engineering graduates and a two-year programme for those with a diploma in mechanical engineering.

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