Going after the government’s planned Rs50,000 crore investment for warships, India’s largest engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) plans to build defence warships and para-military vessels at its proposed shipyard at Kattupalli, in Tamil Nadu, to cater to the needs of the Indian Navy.
The proposed shipbuilding facility at Kattupalli will build defence ships also, apart from general cargo ships and jack-up rigs for the offshore oil industry, said sources from L&T. Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, Goa Shipyard Ltd and Mazagon Dock Ltd are others authorized to build warships. All the three yards are state-owned entities controlled by the Union ministry of defence. Cochin Shipyard Ltd, controlled by the Union ministry of shipping, too has license to build air defence ships.
L&T has plans to bid for the navy’s submarine building program, dubbed Project 75 and 76, which involves building 24 submarines with an investment of $14-16 billion. The firm intends to begin construction of ships by end-2009, with delivery of first ship by 2010-11.
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