Bharati Shipyard said today that the company’s plan to set up a ship-building yard, in tie up with Apeejay group, at Geonkhali in East Midnapore district of West Bengal, has been postponed till the middle of next year due to the present economic and political situation in the state.
“We have delayed our plans to begin work on the project for a few months, till mid next year due to the change in global shipping scenario and certain political conditions. However, the firm is in the process of acquiring nearly 400 acres. Some of which are privately acquired and discussions are going on for the rest,” said Partho Burmon Roy, director, Bharati Shipyard. He said the project was supposed to start work by mid-2010, will be operational before 2014.
The proposed project, a 50:50 joint venture between Apeejay Shipping Ltd and Bharati, required 500 acres, but the land acquisition process ran into trouble as a aftermath of the Singur and Nandigram agitation.
“We are confident about this venture, and there are plans to review the product portfolio. Earlier, the project was for large cargo vessels. Now, we are looking to develop it for engineering intensive ships,” he said.
The company’s plan to set up a ship-building unit and an ancillary unit at Dhamra and Chandipur in Orissa are on track, he said. “We need about 900 acres for the ship-building unit and 500 acres for ancillary. Talks for land acquisition is going on with the state government,” he said.
The total cost of both the projects was expected to be around Rs 2,000-2500 crore. “We are expecting this to escalate by nearly 10 to 15 per cent. The land requirement for Geonkhali project has also been increased to 550 acres,” Roy added.
Bharati already has a ship-building facility in Kolkata, for which it has invested Rs 50 crore.
