KOCHI: Union minister for shipping, road transport and highways Shri Nitin Gadkari will perform the ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs 970 crore international ship repair facility (ISRF) of the Cochin Shipyard Ltd on Friday. The project aims to make Kochi a global ship repair hub. “It will be a red letter day not only for for CSL, but entire Kerala and the nation as a whole since the ship repair facility of global standard is being designed to cater to needs of ships from across the world,” said Cochin Shipyard chairman and managing director Madhu S. Nair.
“On completion within two years, Kochi will be a major ship repair hub in India generating an additional employment of around 1,500 personnel,” he said. The Union government has approved the Rs 970-cr ISRF project in May 2016. CSL will set up a ship lift system of size 130 m x 25 m with lifting capacity of 6,000 tons and 6 workstations. The facility can repair up to 85 vessels, and CSL will thereby be almost doubling the number of ships that can be repaired per year.
Gadkari will also inaugurate - Build The Ship – 2017 – organized by the Ministry of Shipping. The event will deliberate upon the recommendations of a study regarding the growth strategies and the recommendations for promotion of Shipbuilding, Ship Design, Ship Repair and Marine Ancillaries in the country. The Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Ltd a joint venture between CSL and HDPEL, an initiative of Ministry of Shipping into the Shipbuilding and Ship Repair services for Inland & Coastal Waterways Sector, will also be staged at Build The Ship 2017. END
