India’s leading shipbuilder Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) is focusing on building modern vessels powered by green energy, as it looks to deliver 65 ships worth over ₹22,000 crore from global and domestic clients, including the India Navy, its chairman and managing director Madhu S. Nair said.
The move comes amid global concerns over carbon emissions that exacerbate climate change, with the focus now gradually shifting to building ‘green ships’ – vessels that run on less-polluting fuels such as methanol, electricity, green hydrogen and hybrid batteries.
While most of the green ship technologies involving fuel cell, methanol, and electric are being incorporated at present, and CSL uses them to make ships for the western markets, it is now looking at technology transfer agreements with a few European shipping technology companies to scale up and take up complete manufacturing of these new-age ships for both global and Indian markets.
The state-run CSL, which has its main ship manufacturing facility in Kochi, also has subsidiary companies, one based out of Kolkata, and another based out of Udupi in Karnataka that make both coastal and green ships for Indian and European clients. In addition, CSL also has three smaller ship repair units outside Kochi — in Mumbai, Kolkata and Port Blair.
The company invested close to ₹3,000 crore this year to complete work on a new 310-metre-long dry dock, and another international ship repair facility (ISRF) at Kochi. This is expected to raise ship repair facility from just below 100 ships per year now to over 160 ships, allowing it to take up ships repair work in a big way for the global market. Another ship repair facility is being explored on the West Coast to service demand coming from passing vessels.
The Udupi and Hooghly facilities are being considered to service largely international clients and high technology products including green ships, green tugs and coastal ships in demand from European clients. The Kochi facility would cater to demand from the Indian Navy and new technology demonstrator products including production of large-sized vessels.
Earlier this month, CSL laid the keel of India’s largest dredger DCI Dredge Godavari, marking a significant milestone in the country’s maritime capabilities. This trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) with a hopper capacity of 12,000 cubic meters is built for the Dredging Corporation of India Ltd. DCI Dredge Godavari is built in collaboration with Royal IHC, Netherlands. Once commissioned, this dredger will be the most sophisticated and technologically advanced dredger ever built in India.
