Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 |
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Kochi
By Our Staff Reporter
KOCHI, APRIL 11. The Shipping Ministry has proposed the setting up of two shipbuilding hubs, including a Rs. 2,100-crore world-class facility in Kochi contiguous with the special economic zone proposed on land owned by Cochin Port Trust. The Union Minister for Shipping, T.R. Baalu, told a press conference here on Monday that the Hindustan Shipyard in Visakapattinam and the Cochin Shipyard had been asked to prepare plans to expand their current facilities and to set up green field building facilities. The Kochi facility is expected to come up on the land owned by Cochin Port Trust and possibly within the proposed special economic zone, said Mr. Baalu. He was in Kochi to perform the steel cutting for India's first indigenous aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy at CSL. Mr. Baalu said that the shipbuilding industry across the globe was growing at an unprecedented 29 per cent per year and India needed to exploit this opportunity. He said that the Cochin Shipyard was exploring the possibilities of additional infrastructure creation in the same premises and was also looking at the area earmarked for the Vallarpadam container trans-shipment project for the creation of a green field international class shipyard. The Port Trust has about 600 acres of landclose to the Vallarpadam Island where the international box terminal will come up. A portion of this land is likely to be used to build the shipyard. Mr. Baalu said that the Government was open to both Indian and foreign private direct investment in the shipbuilding sector as the Union Government looked forward to putting the maritime industry on a new growth trajectory. The Vallarpadam project will need investments to the tune of Rs. 2,118 crores and, "if, as per our vision, further upgraded facilities of the Cochin Shipyard also come up in the region, it would mean an additional investment of a similar magnitude," said Mr. Baalu. He said China was a good model to be imitated in the shipbuilding sectoral growth. China had identified three shipbuilding hubsand had issued specific directives to the industry. The Union Minister said the Indian ports had handled a total of 383.77 million tonnes of cargo during 2004-05, a growth of 11.3 per cent over the previous year. This is a record achievement, the highest during the last 10 years.
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