India should look at building new shipyards to augment the blue-water capability of the navy, as the existing ones besides being smaller had little scope for expansion, Union minister of state for Defence(Production) said at the inauguration of the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineering's (GRSE) modernisation project.
Rao Inderjit Singh admitted that India was one of the slowest shipbuilding countries in the world and now it was time to expedite the process of delivery of vessels to the Indian navy. "While the navy has to augment its capacity primarily from the public sector shipyards, but private sector help is also required.",
Singh added. The minister felt that as compared to shipyards abroad that were spread over 2,000 to 4,000 acres, domestic yards were much smaller in size, confined to around a few hundred acres. "Most of these yards are located in areas of heavy habitation and there is hardly much chance to expand.", he said, adding that according to the new defence procurement policy, private shipyards could also participate in defence tenders.
Meanwhile, the GRSE today flagged off the second phase of its Rs 530 crore modernisation project that is estimated to be completed in the next 28 months. Besides enhancing the production capacity of the yard that was placed under the administrative control of the defence ministry in 1960, it would also significantly help to reduce the built period of ships.
The project comprises building a 180 meter long dry dock that would be able to handle ships up to the size of 10,000 tons, an inclined berth of the same length, a large module hall for fabrication of hull shapes and an integrated blasting and painting booth capable of handling large blocks.
"This would enable us to build four frigates or destroyers simultaneously, besides continuing with building smaller vessels like hovercrafts, interceptor boats and fast attack crafts(FAC). The new facilities would put GRSE in a different league capable of building large support vessels like the LPDs.", said K C Shekhar, chairman and managing director, GRSE.
UK-based Gifford and Partners Ltd are the consultants for this project, while ITD Cementation India is the construction agency with McNally Bharat working on building a 250 ton goliath crane.
GRSE registered revenues worth Rs573.47 crore in 2007-08 and a gross profit of Rs110.40 crore. The company paid a dividend of Rs 24.77 crore to its sole shareholder, the president of India. It has built 15 ships in the last five years and 91 ships in all so far. "We delivered seven ships to our customers in 2008, launched two patrol vessels and built 38 bailey bridges for government organisations. This year we are scheduled to deliver one LST vessel, four water jet FACs, 42 bailey bridges and 30 high speed interceptor boats.", Shekhar informed.
