India’s first ship lift repair yard being set up at Jaigarh will greatly meet the country’s growing demand
Though Mumbai port has closed its dry docks and Hindustan Shipyard Ltd has been taken over by the Indian Navy greatly reducing the present ship repair facilities available for commercial shipping in the country, the situation is however, likely to change soon. Companies such as Pipavav Shipyard, L& T, Jindal, etc. are well on their way to setting up shipyards which would to a large extent provide repair facilities. Now Chowgule Group too has jumped on to the bandwagon and is setting up an exclusive ship repair facility at Jaigarh on the West coast close to the port and shipyard they are building.
Having received government sanction and obtained all the regulatory approvals the company has just begun work on what will be India’s first ship-lift repairs facility. Situated midway between Mumbai and Goa, it is expected to be a state-of-the-art yard and ship repairs facility.
“It will have the latest equipment that will permit lifting ships out of the water to carry out all the necessary repairs and place them back in the water,” said Atul Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer of Chowgule Ports & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. “The repair yard will have the capacity to handle six ships every day of up to 10,000 DWT size ship. This integrated ship repair facility will be able to accommodate all kind of activities including electronic navigation, underwater, etc. Once commissioned sometime in the last quarter of 2011 – 12 it will have the highest standards of operation in keeping with the needs of the most demanding ship owners.”
With $ 140 million having earmarked for the ship building and repair project Chowgules will have their first port, first repair facility and their third ship yard all at Jaigarh by end of next year. Chowgules well known for ship building have two other well-established shipyards in Goa, one on the Zuari river and another on the Mandovi river just before the rivers enter the Arabian ocean.
Mr. Kulkarni states, “Our present two shipyards are over booked hence we have undertaken the expansion. The two yards are surfeit with orders from European ship owners and the order position is full until 2012 for building 4500 ton vessels. Our Zuari and Mandovi shipyards have draft restriction hence we cannot build very large vessels. We will be able to build much bigger vessels at the new up coming facility at Jaigarh. Chowgules are also into shipping with six bulkers involved in cross trade and one bulk carrier operating between Jafarabad to Ratnagiri on the West coast mostly for transporting cement, clinker, building material, etc. Chowgules are also leading iron mine owners producing the largest iron ore which is converted into pallets.
According to an official conversant with the development, the group used to operate a coastal passenger service between Bombay and Goa with a stopover at Jaigarh near Ratnagiri. They were the first to introduce fishing trawler to the fishing community at Ratanagiri and started building, fishing trawlers, etc. The group also set up the Narmada cements, the country’s first split location cement plant. It was sometime later that the group entered ship building.