China, on Friday, unveiled a giant island-building vessel called the ‘Tiankun’ which is one of its kind in Asia. The vessel also called ‘a magic island-maker’ by its designers was launched at Qidong in eastern Jiangsu province.

Deputy chief engineer of CCCC Tianjin Dredging, Wang Jian said that the vessel, with a deck as long as 140 meters, can smash underwater rocks and then suck out sand, water, and mud, and transfer the substance up to 15 kilometers away. It can dredge up to 6,000 cubic meters (around two and a half Olympic swimming pools) an hour from a depth of up to 35 meters.

The vessel was designed at Marine Design and Research Institute in Shanghai which claims that Tiankun can conduct coastal or channel dredging and land reclamation operations at sea.

Earlier, China has constructed artificial islands on the Spratly archipelago in order to station warplanes and other military hardware amidst concerns among other neighboring countries.

The Tiankun is expected to undergo more mooring and sailing tests after which it is slated to enter service by next summer. Currently, the largest operating dredger in the region, the ‘Tianjin’ can dredge 1,500 cubic meters an hour less than the newly launched vessel from 30 meters beneath the surface. While Tianjin was jointly created by Chinese and German engineers, Tiankun is the first indigenously built self-propelled dredger of its type in China.