Cochin Shipyard to acquire Alcock Ashdown soon: Mandaviya

State-owned Cochin Shipyard will soon take over the defunct Gujarat government-owned ship-building company Alcock Ashdown, Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday.

The company, which is currently in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), has stopped operating since many years.

"When I came to know that this company has shut and people there have lost jobs, I asked the management of Cochin Shipyard to take over this company and revive it," shipping minister Mandaviya told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by Kanhoji Angre Maritime Research Institute.

He said the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to make India a shipbuilding hub and the takeover of Alcock Ashdown is a move in that direction.

The company, originally a British-owned firm engaged in ship-building, ship conversion and ship overhaul projects,was taken over by the Union government in 1975 and subsequently acquired by Modi-led Gujarat government in 1994 to make the state a shipbuilding hub.

Alcock Ashdown owns two ship-building yards, one on the coast of Bhavnagar and another at Chanch in Amreli district.

Mandaviya further said that as a part of his ministry's initiative to give a boost to the coastal community, Alcock can develop deep sea vessels, which we want to give to the fishermen at subsidised rates.

"Our intent is to make available 1,000 subsidised deep sea vessels and some will be developed by Alcock," he added.

At present, these ships cost around Rs 1 crore each.