L&T to invest in new shipbuilding yard

Mumbai-based engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) will set up a major state-of-the-art shipbuilding yard at a cost of Rs1,500 crore.

The company has identified three locations ? Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh and Mundhra in Gujarat for the project. Once the location is finalised in the next few weeks, the project is expected to be commissioned by 2009-2010.

The L&T shipyard would have the capability to manufacture any type of ship, including frigates and destroyers for Navy and the Coast Guard. L&T already has a shipbuilding yard at Hazira, Gujarat, but the area there is not adequate for expansion and for making large ships. The new greenfield shipbuilding yard will be built on a 1,000-acre area and would have the capability to build all types of ships including high-tech vessels, such as CNG, LNG carriers and container ships up to 300,000 DWT.

Although India has 28 shipbuilding yards, the largest ship built in the country is a 45,000 DWT vessel at Kochi Shipyard and none of the country’s shipyards have the capability to manufacture high-tech or sophisticated ships.