Cochin Shipyard forms JV with Hooghly Dock & Port

NEW DELHI: Cochin Shipyard (CSL) today said it has incorporated a JV -- Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Limited (HSSL) -- with Hooghly Dock & Port Engineering Ltd for upgradation and modernisation of shipbuilding infrastructure at two shipyard sites in Kolkata.

Last month, CSL CMD Madhu S Nair has said that the company is in advanced stage of incorporating a joint venture company for taking over assets of the Hooghly dock in Kolkata.

"A Joint Venture (JV) Company has been incorporated today in the name of Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Limited.... Cochin Shipyard Ltd and Hooghly Dock & Port Engineers Limited will have 76 per cent and 24 per cent stake in the Company respectively," CSL said in a filing to the BSE.

The government in March this year had approved formation of Joint Venture Company between Cochin Shipyard Ltd and Hooghly Dock & Port Engineers Limited for upgradation and modernisation of shipbuilding infrastructure at the two shipyard sites of Salkia and Nazirgunge in Kolkata, it said.

CSL has plans to build a Rs 100-crore facility on the Hooghly in Kolkata for construction of vessels for inland water transport.

The state-owned firm saw its initial public offering (IPO) in August getting oversubscribed as many as 75 times.

CSL is the only shipyard in India that can build up to 1,10,000 DWT (deadweight tonnes) with a track record of making tankers, bulk carriers, port crafts and passenger vessels, among others. Currently, it is into constructing platform supply vessels for exports and aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy.

It is also the only shipyard in the country which can fix vessels of up to 1,25,000 DWT, besides being the only yard that can repair an air defence ship.

India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, is in its final stage of construction at CSL.

CSL, under the shipping ministry, was listed on the BSE and the NSE on August 11 this year.

The PSU had clocked revenue of Rs 2,059 crore in 2016-17, with ship-building operations accounting for 74 per cent and repair the rest. Its profit after tax stood at Rs 312 crore.