BREAKING NEWS: Royal IHC lays keel for new TSHD Vishwa Dhan

Royal IHC hosted a keel laying ceremony for a new dredging vessel Vishwa Dhan at their shipyard facility in Kinderdijk earlier this week.

“This moment marks the official start of the assembly of the vessel, and from this point forward, every component added brings us closer to delivering her to our customer after months of preparations,” Royal IHC said.

“The keel is the backbone of the vessel, and laying it is a proud moment for our team and partners, setting the course for the next phases of assembly. Together with our respected customer Vishwa Samudra Holdings we celebrated this moment with a pooja blessing.”

The keel was laid by carefully positioning the first modular section of the vessel on top of a coin, a traditional symbol of good fortune for the vessel and her crew.

The Vishwa Dhan (meaning Vishwa Prosperity) is a trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) with a hopper capacity of 8.000m3 (Beagle® 8) with an overall length of 106m.

Launch is planned to happen in January 2027, with delivery to the customer will happen in summer 2027. 

The Beagle® is a platform of standardized trailing suction hopper dredgers with hopper capacities ranging from 4,000 to 12,000 m³.