Cochin Shipyard on course to execute Rs 150 bn worth projects, says CMD

These include building an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvette and an aircraft carrier for Indian Navy in next five years

Cochin Shipyard, the largest ship-building and repairing facility in the country, will execute orders worth about Rs 150 billion, including building an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvette and an aircraft carrier for Indian Navy in next five years. The expansion plans, which include a dry dock within the shipyard and facilities in Mumbai, Kolkata and Port Blair, totally worth over Rs 25 billion, would also be ready during this period, said Madhu S Nair, CMD of Cochin Shipyard.

"Unlike in other industries, we will not see this signed, documented and sealed at each point of time, but the visibility in front of us is around Rs 150 billion. For the aircraft carrier, we have some post-delivery commitments. All these contracts have to be executed within four or five years," he said.

The company is in advanced stages of finalising a contract with the Indian Navy to build the ASW Corvette, as it is the lowest bidder for the project. Cochin Shipyard will make eight such vessels for a total value of Rs 54 billion. The contract is expected to be signed before December-end this year.

The aircraft carrier project will mark the third phase of building activities commencing either by December or early part of 2019. The vessel is scheduled to be delivered on February 2021 and the company is on course to achieving that target, Nair added. The signed and remaining works in the order book are around Rs 18 billion. Of this, Rs 5.13 billion pertain to the aircraft carrier project, whose total value is Rs 28.48 billion.

The ongoing expansion projects are also on track. They include a Rs 17.99 billion new large drydock in the existing facility, which is targeted for completion in June 2021. "We have started initial ground preparation work in May, awarding the contract to Larsen & Toubro. The ground-breaking ceremony took place this October. The project is expected to be completed in three years," Nair said.

An international ship repair facility is also being built in Kochi at an investment of Rs 9.7 billion and a completion target set for November 2019. The company is also developing a modern small inland ship-building facility in Kolkata, under the joint-venture firm Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Ltd at an investment of Rs 1.6 billion. Construction is expected to start by December-end of 2018 and operations are expected to commence by 2020.

Cochin Shipyard is also planning to commence operations in a ship repair facility taken over from Mumbai Port Trust in Mumbai, by January 2019, at an investment of Rs 800 million to Rs 1 billion; apart from ship repairing facilities in Kolkata (estimated investment: Rs 150-180 million) and Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar, where it would be funded by the government.

The company had earlier signed an agreement with Russian ship-building firm United Shipbuilding Corporation to work on designing, development and execution of vessels for inland and coastal shipping.