How Aeromarine took JNPT’s full channel marking order — 22 buoys and 18 leading lights — from manufacture through installation to commissioning in a third of the contracted time.
CLIENT
JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust)
SCOPE
22 channel buoys + 18 leading lights
WORK
Full supply, installation & commissioning
DELIVERED
Complete channel in ~30 days
THE CHALLENGE
JNPT placed a tender contract for the supply of rotationally moulded, virgin polyethylene navigational channel marking buoys and leading lights for its approach channel — 22 buoys of 3 metre diameter with integral solar-powered LED marine lanterns, plus 18 solar-powered leading lights, front and rear, to mark the channel for vessels transiting the port. The contract allowed 90 days for supply. As a turnkey scope, the buoys and leading lights also had to be installed and commissioned as a working system, not simply delivered to store.
WHAT AEROMARINE DID
- Supplied 22 Sealite Trident 3000 buoys, 3m diameter with integral solar LED marine lanterns, moorings and sinkers — 9 red port-hand, 12 green starboard-hand and 1 red-and-white fairway buoy, to IALA colour convention.
- Supplied 18 Sealite solar leading lights — 9 front units (SL48-3, 85W solar module, 100AH battery, 8–10 NM range) and 9 rear units (SL96-3, 140W solar module, 120AH battery, 10–13 NM range) — in weatherproof housings with charge controllers, for mounting on the leading light towers.
- Had mooring gear classification-certified and supplied manufacturer’s test certificates for the buoys and lanterns as per IALA recommendations.
- Carried out positioning, installation and commissioning of the full channel system, and trained JNPT’s operations personnel on it.
- Took the complete channel — buoys and leading lights, manufactured, supplied, installed and commissioned — from award to running system in around 30 days, well inside the 90-day contract period.
THE OUTCOME · WHY AEROMARINE IS THE FIRST CHOICE
A full navigational channel — 22 buoys and 18 leading lights — was manufactured, supplied, installed and commissioned in about 30 days against a 90-day contract, giving JNPT a complete, certified channel marking system well ahead of schedule.
WHY IT MATTERS
A channel can’t run on half-finished aids to navigation — every day between delivery and commissioning is a day of restricted or riskier transits for vessels calling at the port. Turning around a fleet-scale buoy and leading light contract, manufacture through commissioning, in a third of the contracted time is what a turnkey aids-to-navigation capability looks like in practice, not just a supply order ticked off.
Supplied with full paperwork: Manufacturer’s test certificates per IALA recommendations · classification-society certification for mooring gear · purchase order and completion documentation. |
Under tow to station
Made fast at the quay
Heading out to the channel
