Page 31: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2012)

was a record on the Bombay Stock Ex- change until it was only recently been broken. What had been a two-shipyard com- pany - one each at Ratnagiri and Ghod- bunder - both on the West coast of India, Bharati Shipyard moved onto a higher growth trajectory on adopting a major expansion strategy. In 2004 it added four more shipyards, one at Calcutta, another at Goa and two Greenfield shipyards one at Mangalore and the other at Dhabol. The Dhabol shipyard is the largest yard spread over 300 acres with Mangalore shipyard being a close second in size. ?Dhabol is designed by First MarineInternational of the UK,? said Kumar. ?The yard has a capacity to build among other vessels: Jack-up Drill Rigs, Off- shore Structures, and ships of up to100,000 DWT. The yard is now being geared to achieve self-sufficiency, with facilities for shipbuilding incorporating the most modern machinery and equip-ment. Presently, in Dhabol we are build- ing a very sophisticated jack up drilling rig cantilever for the first time in the country, and it will be ready by the mid- dle next year. This is about a $200 mil- lion project for Great Offshore. The rig will be able to drill up to 30,000 feeteven where water depths exceed 350 ft.? Building a Shipbuilding & Repair Stronghold Kumar explains that each shipyard is designed to build different types of ves- sels. For example, the Ratnagiri and the March 2012 www.marinelink.com 31?Last year we also acquired Techma Shipyard which has three construction sites, one each at Chennai, Cochin and Malpe. As a result we now have nine shipyards both on the East coast and West coast of India placing us in a strong po- sition to offer ship repair services and an ?immediate re- sponse? facility especially for Naval and Coast Guard vessels. As far as quality is concerned our customers accept the fact that we are better than China, equal to Singapore and very close to Korea.? Vijay Kumar, Managing Director of Bharati Shipyard MR March 12 # 4 (25-32):MR Template 3/2/2012 8:19 AM Page 31