Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2011)

Pipavav Shipyard, India's largest ship- yard and rated as the world’s sixth largest shipping facility, is flush with orders and the number is growing dramatically.

However, Pipavav has yet to make a debut on the delivery side though there is no definite day fixed for its first delivery.

Anil Tiku, General Manager of Pipavav

Shipyard Ltd. confirms that they are get- ting ready with a series deliveries but he would not commit on the likely date when this is likely to happen. “The first delivery will take place in the coming year” he says. He also confirmed that the company was in talks for more contracts and the deals would be clinched soon.

Pipavav’s order book boasts of 22

Panamax bulk carriers with capacity of 74,500 DWT each for delivery by 2012 to various European consortia. One of these would be of Ice Class. They have orders for six offshore support patrol ves- sels and contract for another 12 offshore vessels for the Oil & Natural Gas Corpo- ration Ltd (ONGC) is being finalized.

Recently it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for defense co- production with the Swedish group

SAAB Dynamics AB, a part of Wallen- berg Group. This partnership offers ac- cess to SAAB’s cutting edge technology for production in the defense and aero- space sectors. With this Pipavav Shipyard would be able to cater to the entire gamut of the defense services sector.

Pipavav also signed a protocol with

Rosoboron Export State Corporation for constructing war ships under Russian col- laboration, technology and supervision at its yard. Under the pact, four additional

Stealth frigates will be constructed in col- laboration with the Russian firm at the company’s shipyard. The agreement will help Pipavav develop technology to build frontline warships on a cost-effective basis. The agreement covers mid-life up- dates, dry docking repairs and modern- ization of submarines of Russian origin in use by the Indian navy

Pipavav Shipyard is located within the vicinity of Pipavav Port, on the West coast of India. It was initially conceived as a ship dismantling yard. For this pur- pose, the yard was developed with two large wet basins each measuring 680 me- ters length and a respective width of 60 meters and 65 meters. These are among the largest wet basins built in the world.

Given its size, Pipavav Shipyard has the potential to become one of the largest shipyard complexes in the world.

Having thefirst eco-friendly dockyard facility in the world for dismantling/re- pairing ships its yard has achieved the distinction of being one of the five largest docks in the world and largest in the country, and will therefore be equipped to handle almost any size of ship. The project is inherited with various unique features in its design, location, facilities, size, integration, environment compliant, funding, etc. — Joseph Fonseca, Mumbai

February 2011 www.marinelink.com 11

Orders Pour in at Pipavav Shipyard