State-of-the art shipyard to revolutionise Chennai coastline

C Shivakumar:

Chennai coast will soon become the hub of warship and hi-tech commercial ship with the completion of the first phase of Rs 400 crore Kattupalli mega shipyard project at Kattupalli village near Ennore, Chennai.

M V Kotwal, member of Larsen and Toubro board and president of heavy engineering told Express that the shipyard which is being built in 1,200 acre of land in Katpulli will be a most modern shipyard with port and offshore fabrication facility. “The facility is ideally located for ship repair and it will provide refits for defence and commercial ship,” he added.

Kotwal said the ship lift is nearing completion and is mostly indigenous in design. The testing of the shiplift will be done in November or December and it will come into place in January.

Interestingly, when the project is fully completed, the shipyard will become a nucleus for heavy engineering industry (for fabrications and components manufacturing).

“We are looking at building special cargo building vessels, liquefied natural gas vessels, defence warship and we don’t want to be in competition with China in low cost ship making,” he added.

Surprisingly, the shipyard is already building inceptor boats for coastguard. “We have got order to build 36 interceptor boats for coastguard with a speed of 45 nautical miles. While 24 are being made in hazira in Gujarat, 12 ship are being built here. The first ship will be ready by 2012,” he added.

To a query on how they will fulfill the need of steel for the shipbuilding yard, he said now Indian steel mills like Essar and Jindal are coming forward to supply steel to the shipbuilding industry.

He is also planning to have marine design centres for defence and commercial ship in Chennai as the knowhow in design has not taken root in India. “Currently, 3D design is the new mantra as compared to earlier days when the focus was on hull,” he added.

He also stressed the need for a special economic zone status for shipbuilding industry besides creation of a Katpulli Development Authority to develop the whole area besides creation of a industrial hub for fabrication and components manufacturing. He also highlighted the need to develop national highway (NH5) to clear the flow of in and out materials.