The Hindustan Shipyard Limited has paid dearly for preferential treatment being meted out to other public sector shipyards by the Central government.
Though an emphatic promise was made at the time of transferring HSL, the premier shipyard of the country set up in 1941, from the control of Ministry of Shipping to Defence to give orders on nomination basis, it has been deprived of any high value order so far.
Preferential treatment to other PSU shipyards is evident from the fact that Mazagon Dock Ltd and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers have a combined order book of Rs.1 lakh crore whereas HSL has orders worth around Rs.1,500 crore against a breakeven order book of Rs. 5,000 crore.
The company set up by Scindia Navigation Company was partially taken over by the government in 1952 and became a Government of India enterprise in 1961.
It has so far built 173 and repaired nearly 2,000 vessels of various sizes.
On the warpath
The announcement by Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete to shut it down for incurring heavy losses and reports in a section of the Press that its plea for six submarines worth Rs. 60,000 crore under Project 75 (1) of Navy were not being considered set the employees on the warpath. The employees’ unions have threatened to go on indefinite strike if Mr. Geete did not retract his statement on closure of HSL.
Cash inflow has turned a big handicap as it has a negative working capital of Rs. 467 crore.
HSL has already invested Rs. 50 crore on submarine repair facility and formed a consortium with BHEL and Midhani and signed MoU with Hyundai for collaboration to build submarines.
HSL Chairman and Managing Director Rear Admiral N.K. Mishra told The Hindu that MoD has no plan to close HSL.
“In fact, the revival of the shipyard is under consideration of MoD,” he points out.
