Cochin Shipyard, India’s ship and offshore structure building company, has secured an approval by the Indian government for the construction of a new $267 million dry dock, to boost the shipbuilding and shiprepair capacity of the country.
The approval was granted on Wednesday by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
According to the cabinet’s statement, the new dry dock will enable tapping the market of constructing specialized and technologically advanced large vessels such as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) vessels, aircraft carriers of higher capacity, jack-up rigs, drilships, large dredgers. The shipyard will also be able to repair offshore platforms and larger vessels, as well.
“This big sized dry dock is a critical requirement of CSL to promote ship building and is a step in the direction of “Make in India” initiative of the government,“ the cabinet said.
There would be no financial outgo from the government on account of the construction of new dry dock as the expenditure of Rs.1799 crore will be funded through Internal and Extra Budgetary resources (IEBR) of CSL and the funding requirements are fully tied up, the government said.
The economic affairs committee also said that, apart from direct employment of 300 workers, about 2000 personnel would be indirectly employed when the project becomes fully operational.