Article Posted on : - Sep 20, 2011

CHENNAI (PTI): The shipyard being set up by Indian engineering major Larsen &Toubro at Kattupalli near here would become operational by January next year, a top company official has said.

The shipyard would enable India to compete globally with Japan and South Korea in building large-sized warships, car carriers and submarines, L&T Board Member and President (Heavy Engineering) M V Kotwal said.

The Shipyard is being set up by the company in association with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation.

Addressing at a seminar here, Kotwal said the company had invested Rs 4,000 crore for the first phase of the yard spread across 1,250 acres.

“It is going to be a monster of facilities… It can handle 18,000 tonne ships and right now, the (work on) ship-lift is nearing completion... it will be operational by January 2012...,” he said.

Stating the yard was indigenously designed by L&T, Kotwal later told reporters that the first ship from the Kattupalli Shipyard was expected to be rolled out by 2012-13.

“By 2012-13 it (first ship) should be rolled out,” he said to a query.

According to the official, the Kattupalli Shipyard, located near Ennore Port, and the company’s another facility at Hazira (in Gujarat) would be simultaneously used by Larsen and Toubro for manufacturing ships.

The company was also setting up large workshops for repairs at Kattupalli.

“Chennai is blessed geographically for setting up ship repairs... as currently they are done only in Singapore and Colombo,” he said.

Kotwal said the company has bagged a project from the Coast Guard to manufacture 36 highspeed “interceptor” vessels which can travel up to 45 knots per hour. “We are thinking of distributing some orders to Kattupalli shipyard (from Hazira facility) once this becomes operational,” he said.

He said the ship building industry was expected to touch USD 20 billion by 2020.