The prospects of Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., look very bright thanks to the Union Ministry of Defence taking it over. HSL will get orders for construction of two large landing platform docks for the Navy at a cost Rs.4,000 crore each which will take the company to new heights. Informing this in an interview with The Hindu on Friday, HSL Chairman and Managing Director Rear Admiral K.C. Sekhar said that with MoD's support, the third and fourth of the four LPDs would be built at HSL. “The amount of job we can generate at Vizag will be tremendous. It will take five to six years to build each of these. However, we'll do parallel construction to deliver them one after the other,” he revealed. He also said that HSL had orders for 17 tugs. It would shortly sign contract for three 25-ton bollard pull tugs for the Indian Navy and the tugs would cost about Rs. 100 crore.
The work orders would also see HSL going ahead with modernisation with respect to equipment, machinery and cranes which would be replaced. The infrastructure would also be built with more dry docks, covered sheds, jetty and rail track. About Rs.400 core would be spent in the first phase of modernisation in the next two years. He was confident that the modernisation plans would be approved shortly.
Rear Admiral Sekhar, who is CMD of Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) and holding additional charge at HSL, said the HSL would later be used for building submarines. At present, HSL had work orders worth Rs.1,300 crore and the focus was on completing the work on hand. It had built five patrol vessels for Coast Guard. The first was ready for delivery and the rest would be delivered in due course. The turnover of the company had crossed Rs. 650 crore. However, there was more money in ship repair work, he admitted. “We have just completed refit of INS Sandhayak which will be delivered in the next 10 days. The work cost over Rs. 35 crore,” he disclosed.
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