Giving a major impetus to ‘Make in India’ initiative, India all set to get its largest dry dock in Cochin

Cochin, October 30: Giving a major impetus to ‘Make in India’ initiative under Sagarmala, India gets its largest dry dock at the Cochin Shipyard. Kerala’s Cochin Shipyard will be equipped to make vessels to provide impetus to the government’s Make in India scheme.

Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan laid the foundation for India’s largest dry dock for the construction, repair and maintenance of ships at the Cochin Shipyard.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government has no plan to privatize profit-making industrial units in the country. He also said the Centre has a plan to invest in Inland Waterways in Kerala. He lauded the contributions of Cochin Shipyard in the field of skill training in ship building.

India’s commercial shipbuilding industry is worth Rs 3,200 crore and focuses primarily on small-medium sized off-shore vessels and cargo and bulk carriers. The new dock is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,799 crore.

“The dry dock will give an impetus to ‘Make in India’ initiative under Sagarmala (Programme for building and modernizing ports) and raise India’s share in global shipbuilding to 2%. India currently occupies 0.66% share in global shipbuilding market,” the shipping ministry said.

The dock will be able to build specialised and technologically advanced large vessels like LNG Carriers, drillships, jack-up rigs, large dredgers, aircraft carriers for the Indian Navy and high-end research vessels.