Shipyard to usher in sea change in coastline

CHENNAI: Chennai coast will soon become the hub of warships and hi-tech commercial vessels with the completion of the first phase of `400-crore Kattupalli mega shipyard project at Kattupalli village near Ennore, Chennai.M V Kotwal, member of Larsen and Toubro board and president of heavy engineering, told Express that the shipyard, being built on 1,200 acres of land at Kattupalli, would be a most modern shipyard with port and offshore fabrication facility. “The facility is ideally located for ship repair and it will provide refits for defence and commercial ships,” he added.Kotwal said the ship lift was nearing completion and was mostly indigenous in design. The testing of the shiplift would be done in November or December and it would come into place in January.Interestingly, when the project is fully completed, the shipyard will become a nucleus for heavy engineering industry (for fabrications and components manufacturing). “We are looking at building special cargo building vessels, liquefied natural gas vessels, defence warships and we don’t want to be in competition with China in low cost ship making,” he added.Surprisingly, the shipyard was already building inceptor boats for coastguard. “We have got order to build 36 interceptor boats for coastguard with a speed of 45 nautical miles. While 24 are being made in Hazira in Gujarat, 12 are being built here. The first ship will be ready by 2012,” he added.To a query on how they would fulfil the need of steel for the shipbuilding yard, he said now Indian steel mills like Essar and Jindal were coming forward to supply steel to the shipbuilding industry.He was also planning to have marine design centres for defence and commercial ships in Chennai as the knowhow in design had not taken root in India. “Currently, 3D design is the  mantra as compared to earlier days when the focus was on hull,” he added.He also stressed the need for a special economic zone status for shipbuilding industry, besides creation of a Katpulli development authority to develop the whole area and creation of an industrial hub for fabrication and components manufacturing. He also highlighted the need for developing national highway (NH5) to clear the flow of in and out materials.