HSL to Build Submarines
HSL shifts from refits to submarine building
Visakhapatnam: The Hindustan Shipyard Limited has positioned itself for the coveted Miniratna status while transitioning toward indigenous submarine construction capabilities.
This marks a major leap from HSL’s traditional submarine refit operations to full-scale submarine building through strategic partnerships with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL). The state-owned shipbuilder's robust forward pipeline includes 4 Landing Platform Docks (LPDs), 12 Mine Counter Measure Vessels (MCMVs) and 31 Next-Generation Fast Attack Craft for the defense sector.
Alongside, the commercial segment projections are for 30 medium-range product tankers, 24 very large gas carriers and 4 offshore vessels.
HSL had 43 years of negative growth. The remarkable financial transformation saw the company achieve positive equity of Rs 490 crore. The total income surged from Rs 403 crore in fiscal 2020-21 to Rs 1,783 crore in 2024-25, representing a fourfold increase. The company's ‘profit before tax’ count transformed from a Rs 85 crore loss to Rs 284 crore profit, while its MOU performance score improved from 36 to 84 on a scale of 100.
This growth positioned HSL among top-performing PSUs.
State its chairman and MD Hemanti Khatri at a press conference on Tuesday, “We are presenting before you a new HSL, an HSL that is rising and shining, where there is hope, belief and trust for all our customers and the central government.” He cited objectives targeting a 20 per cent annual production increase to reach a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore within a two-year period.
"We have transformed from a traditional public sector unit into a performance-oriented shipyard,” he averred.
The shipyard has established strategic partnerships with Pentagon Rugged Systems for anti-drone technology, Fincantieri (Italy) and DESC (Korea) for advanced vessel technologies and BEML for homegrown marine systems. It has successfully carried out the normal refit (NR) of INS Sindhukirti and is now ready to begin the Medium Refit with Life Certification (MRLC) of INS Sindhuvijay.
This would be the first project of its kind undertaken in India.
Promoting indigenous manufacturing, HSL achieved 80 per cent local content in INS Nistar and 72 per cent in floating dock projects, while also indigenizing manufacture of Rs 220 crore worth of components that were previously imported.