L&T plans Rs 1,500cr hi-tech shipyard

Larsen & Toubro plans to set up a major state-of-the-art ship building yard at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore.

The new greenfield ship building yard would come up on a 1,000-acre area and have capability to make all types of ships, including high tech designs like CNG, LNG carriers and containers upto 3 lakh dead weight tonnes (DWT), MV Kotwal, senior vice-president, L&T said.

"We will announce the details of the project in one or two months," a top company official told PTI, adding the company has identified three locations in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, of which one would be selected.

L&T is already into ship building at Hazira, Gujarat, but the area there is not adequate for expansion and for making large ships.

Though India has 28 ship building yards, none of them have the capability to manufacture high tech or sophisticated ships. The largest ships built in the country are of 45,000 DWT.

The L&T shipyard would have the capability of manufacturing any type of ship, including frigates and destroyers for the Navy and Coast Guard.

The three locations identified are Chennai, Kakinada and Mundhra and the project, once finalised in the next few weeks, will be commissioned by 2009-2010.