MV KARUTHAL Naming Ceremony

A long and arduous journey - at the end of it MV KARUTHAL, the largest vessel built by a private yard in Kerala was officially named today at the Cochin Port Trust, BPT Terminal. The owner, Trans Asia Shipping Services Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) and the shipyard, Century Shipyard, along with lot of other suppliers, sub-contractors and support staff made this successful endeavor possible.

Johnson Mathew, CEO of Trans Asia had a vision to built a sea-going container vessel in Kochi. Although it appeared impossible at the time when the project was conceived, two years back, his vision was executed by a great team of specialists. Notable among them were Joy Jacob, the Executive Director of Century Shipyard and MD of NavTech Designs; Cmdr. Zachariah, Chief Naval Architect this vessel; Xavier, MD of Century Shipyard, the man responsible for the construction process; Vijayan of Trans Asia who coordinated the project from owners side.

Navgathi also contributed to this project in a small way. We did the design of the hatch covers - first optimized the hatch cover and reduced its total weight by about 25 tonnes for four hatch covers and second converted them to be able to carry containers on top (see the photo above). Apart from that we also designed the structural fire protection plan, assisted in the Torsional vibration calculation and other minor support drawings.

The Chief guest of the naming ceremony was Sri. Ummen Chandy, ex. Chief Minister of Kerala and leader of Opposition. Other dignitaries include MLA Dominique Presentation, MLA Ibrahim Kunju, Chairman of Cochin Port Trust Premachandran.

In another couple of days, the vessel will set sail on its maiden voyage to Middle East. We wish its owner Trans Asia best wishes and hope that it will endeavor in many such project in the future.


Vessel Particulars:
Length 67.3 m
Breadth 12.8 m
Depth 5.6 m
Draft 3.2 m
Deadweight 1600 T
Capacity 81 TEU