L&T Shipbuilding Ltd at Kattupalli near Chennai has been set up jointly by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and TIDCO in two phases. After Colombo and Singapore, Kattupalli will be the third major international destination for ship repairs in the Indian Ocean region. The shipyard is fully functional from June 2015.
“The shipyard has been executing orders in defence sector ‘from Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy’. This is the only privately – owned defence shipyard in the country. We construct new ships, do ship repairs and carry out refits of the ships,” said J S Mann, Vice President & Head of the company.
Spread over 1225 acres, the shipyard has facilities to build offshore platforms, drilling rigs and floating production, storage and offloading units (FPSOs), besides a minor port which can handle container ships.
The following facilities are available in the shipyard:
• Capacity to build and repair defence ships including submarines, commercial ships, and specialized cargo ships.
• Marine coating shops, pipe shop, electrical shop, and machine shop.
• Dedicated shops are available for ship repairs, refits, and mid-life upgrade activities.
In 2015, L&T bagged order for constructing seven off-shore patrol vessels for this Indian Coast Guard and Floating Dock for Indian Navy. All were designed in-house at the L&T Ship Design Centre, Manapakkam, Chennai. It is also constructing 54 Interceptor Boats for Indian Coast Guard. “We have delivered most of the boats two years ahead of schedule,” said Mann.
A ship-lift with lifting capacity of 23,000 tonnes (further extension planned for larger vessels) along with transfer system and dry berths enable quick turnaround of ships. L&T is proud of its ship lift, that is one of its kind conceptualised, designed, manufactured, installed and operated indegenously. The shipyard, located in a SEZ has approximately 2.2 km of waterfront and 16 metre draught. There are four wet berths for berthing ships.
