Kerala’s Cochin Shipyard will be equipped to make vessels to provide impetus to the government’s Make in India scheme, the shipping ministry announced on Monday.

The announcement came a day before Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan would lay the foundation for India’s largest dry dock for the construction, repair and maintenance of ships at the Cochin Shipyard.

“The dry dock will give an impetus to ‘Make in India’ initiative under Sagarmala (Programme for building and modernizing ports) and raise India’s share in global shipbuilding to 2%. India currently occupies 0.66% share in global shipbuilding market,” the shipping ministry said.

India’s commercial shipbuilding industry is worth Rs 3,200 crore and focuses primarily on small-medium sized off-shore vessels and cargo/bulk carriers. The new dock is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,799 crore.

The dock will be able to build specialised and technologically advanced large vessels like LNG Carriers, drillships, jack-up rigs, large dredgers, aircraft carriers for the Indian Navy and high-end research vessels.

First Published: Oct 30, 2018 00:01 IST