Titagarh Wagons, among the largest private sector railway wagon manufacturers in India, is planning to develop a shipbuilding facility at Kulpi in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district in addition to its shipyard.
"We have future plans for ship building business. We are taking land at Kulpi. Apart from making wagons, we are starting ship building. We have constraints in building big ships here. Due to the height of the Howrah Bridge which is a limiting factor for passing big ships, we will build lower bodies and will complete it in Kulpi," company's Founder and Executive Chairman Jagdish Chowdhary said.
According to Chowdhary, the company is in the process of acquiring 50 acres of land at Kulpi.
The company had signed the contract from National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences for design, construction and delivery of two high end coastal research vessels valued at Rs.100 crore.
It also inked a contract with the Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Ship Production for making two 1,000 fuel barges worth Rs.75 crore, which will support INS Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy's flagship aircraft carrier.
The four ships are the initial tenders won by the company after it ventured into ship building in the beginning of this year.
"We expect to deliver the two barges for Indian Navy in the next one year and two vessels for NIOT in 27 months," he added.