The yard is also working on ships and vessels for the Indian Coast Guard, DCI, the Fisheries department and for other private companies. (Photo source: PTI)

Hindustan Shipyard Ltd, which has been focusing on `Make in India’ a big success has undergone a significant financial turnaround and in the last four financial years has posted profits. These profits came after a gap of almost four decades. Talking about the order book of the yard, the outgoing CMD of the Shipyard, RAdm LV Sarat Babu, in a conversation with Financial Express Online said “The order book is good. The yard is presently building for the Indian Navy two Diving support vessels costing about Rs 2500 crores, as well as four 50 tonne bollard pull tugs costing about Rs 250 crores.”

“The shipyard has also recently won a contract for constructing semi-submersible pontoon for the Indian Navy costing about Rs 450 crores,” RAdm Sarat Babu said.

The shipyard has set a record by recently completing a major refit of EKM class submarine ahead of schedule apart from delivering ships post refit and repair ahead of schedule. Besides this, “There are two Indian Navy ships undergoing refitting, and there are other vessels too,” he added.

The yard is also working on ships and vessels for the Indian Coast Guard, DCI, the Fisheries department and for other private companies.

In an earlier interaction, the CMD of the yard had stated that the Indian Navy’s Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (MCPP) will give enough opportunities to all the shipyards for competing for different types of vessels.

Since the yard has been undertaking short and long refits of the submarines, the focus has been to make the dream of `Make in India’ initiative a huge success.

“Compared to other yards PSUs or private, the yard has managed to get orders on a competitive basis, which has made their order book health,” observed an industry source.

Being a PSU, the shipyard has been competing with the private sector on equal footing and has been complying with the policies as laid down by the government.

“The HSL has the four Cs `Confidence, Commitment, Capability and Capacity’. We can undertake most types of ship construction, as well as repair and submarine retrofit projects,” the outgoing CMD concluded.

The yard has also last year won the prestigious ‘SKOCH Awards 2019’ in the category of “Corporate Excellence” which was received by RAdm LV Sarat Babu, C& MD HSL along with his team received this award. This was, in fact, the 7th award the yard had received between 2018-19 under him.