A dry dock facility will be expanded by the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) at its century-old boat basin and timber pond. The dock facility would cater to smaller ships. After Hoogly Dock and Port Engineers at Kolkata, it will become the second dock in the east coast.
For dry docking purpose, ships from the east coast often visit shipyards in Singapore, while dredgers, tugs and cruise boats go to Colombo for repairs due to non-availability of dry docks in the Indian coast and quick turnaround time. The waiting period for some of the vessels in Indian docks are said to be over 12 months.
The Chennai prot's timber pond and boat basin was created about 100 years ago and it is located in the southwest end of inner harbour (Ambedkar dock) of the Chennai Port.