L&T's shipyard to become operational by January 2012

CHENNAI: Engineering major Larsen and Toubro's shipyard being set up at Kattupalli near here would become operational by coming January, a top company official said today.

The shipyard would enable India to compete globally with Japan and Korea in building large-sized warships, car carriers and submarines, L&T Board Member and President (Heavy Engineering) M V Kotwal said.

The company in association with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, is setting up the Shipyard at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore for the first phase.

Addressing a session on "Consultative Meeting" "Vision 2025"-Industries, Kotwal said the company had invested Rs 4,000 crore for the first phase of the yard spread across 1,250 acres.

"It is going to be a monster of facilities.. It can handle 18,000 tonne ships and right now, the (work on) ship-lift is nearing completion... it will be operational by January 2012...", he said.

Claiming that the yard was "indigenously designed" by L&T, Kotwal later told reporters that the first ship from the Kattupalli Shipyard was expected to be rolled out by 2012-13.

"By 2012-13 it (first ship) should be rolled out" he said to a query.