L&T to set up port facility at Kaatupalli

Chennai: Larsen & Turbo and the Tamil Nadu Government have entered into an agreement to set up a Rs 3,068-crore integrated ship building and port facility to the north of Chennai.

According to an official press release, the joint venture agreement between L&T and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation was signed in the presence of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi. The facility is to come up in Thiruvallur district, at Kaatupalli near Ennore.

The shipyard will have the capability to build very large crude carriers, passenger vessels and ships for specialised applications such as transporting LNG, LPG and defence applications.

The facility can handle movement of defence ships including submarines, the release said.

L&T is the only private sector company to hold a licence to manufacture vessels for the defence applications, it added.

Apart from ship building, the shipyard will also be able to refurbish and maintain a range of vessels. The project which is to be launched within the year end is expected to be completed in about two years.

It will generate over 5,000 direct jobs and an equal number of jobs indirectly.

According to officials, Tidco has over 1,200 acres land earmarked for the project.

The release said that the project would catalyse additional investments in heavy engineering, components and support industries.

This would be on par with the automobile and electronic industries in the State.

The company chose to set up the project in Tamil Nadu after assessing a number of sites in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

L&T has a ship building facility at Hazira in Gujarat and was looking to construct a greenfield facility since it could not expand at Hazira and also because the ship building business was booming.

The Tamil Nadu Government announced in August 2007 a minor ports policy, which was meant to facilitate the integrated ship building yard-cum-port project.

Under the policy, the Government said captive ports could handle commercial cargo, thereby improving the economic viability of such a project.