Titagarh shipyard to build vessels for Indian Navy

Kolkata: Titagarh Wagons, flagship company of the Titagarh Group, kicked off the construction of two 1,000MT fuel barges for the Indian Navy and two coastal research vessels for National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) at their Titagarh Shipyard in North 24 Parganas. The steel cutting ceremony took place at its Titagarh unit on Tuesday.

The company that forayed into ship building earlier this year, became the first private company in the state that will manufacture vessels for the Indian Navy. The company is planning to develop a shipbuilding facility at Kulpi in South 24 Parganas district in addition to its Titagarh shipyard.

“We have future plans for the ship building business. We are taking land at Kulpi as we have constraints in building big ships here. The height of the Howrah bridge is a barrier for passing big ships. We will build the lower body of the ships, including steel fabrication, hull making, installation of engines at this unit here and will complete the ship at Kulpi,” the company’s founder and executive chairman Jagdish Chowdhary said. A company official said that they are in the process of acquiring 50 acres of land at Kulpi.

The company signed the contract with NIOT under ministry of Earth sciences for design, construction and delivery of two high end coastal research vessels valued at Rs 100 crore. It also signed a contract with the ministry of defence (Navy), directorate of ship production for undertaking design, construction and delivery of two fuel barges for the Indian Navy worth Rs 75 crore, which will support the famed INS Vikramaditya, Indian Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier.

The company expects to deliver the two barges for the Indian Navy in the next one year and two vessels for NIOT in 27 months.