PANAJI: Faced with paucity of sufficient land at its disposal, Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), Goa-based Defence shipyard, has approached the State Government seeking additional land for its ambitious infrastructure modernisation projects estimated to cost Rs.800 crore to be implemented in four phases.
The public sector undertaking, set up in the port city of Vasco in south Goa in 1957, is looking forward to enhancing the shipbuilding capacity by nearly three times in the immediate future once it completes the modernisation project.
Chairman and Managing Director of GSL RAdm. Vineet Bakhshi told presspersons at a press conference here on Monday that the first two phases of the project costing Rs.400 crore were “under an advanced stage of implementation” and were expected to be completed later this year. R. Choudhary, Director, Operations and S. A. Jegaraj, Chief General Manager, were also present.
Mr. Bakhshi said that GSL had approached the Goa Industrial Development Corporation, the State industry promotion body, seeking additional land. He said if it failed to get land adjacent to its present shipyard in Vasco, which is congested, then GSL would have to move out to some of its facilities inshore.
“On the completion of the ongoing phases, we will be the first shipbuilding yard in the country to be equipped with a modern ship-lift facility for launching and docking of ships,” said Mr. Bakhshi.
Work on the remaining two phases for creating infrastructure for Mine Counter Measure Vessel (MCMV) project of Indian Navy is expected to be finalised in tandem with the finalisation of MCMV project by the Navy. That apart, for an upcoming shore-based training facility project at the INS Hansa, Goa, GSL is the main integrator for the facility developed in association with the Aeronautical Development Agency, Bangalore.
GSL is also examining the possibility of a long-term relationship with the Indian Coast Guard for maintenance and repairs of its vessels. In addition, it is looking at the possibility of establishing its presence in the Middle East for repairs and construction of ships, said the CMD. GSL is making efforts to secure an export order from a prominent Middle East country. Apart from Gulf countries, GSL has a growing export market in Africa and Southeast Asia. The company is also looking at export markets for its entire range of products such as the damage control simulator, fast interceptor craft, patrol vessels and offshore patrol vessels.
GSL achieved a record value of production of Rs.866 crore and returned a net profit of Rs.131 crore for 2009-10 against Rs.508 crore and Rs.82 crore, respectively in the previous year.
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