Wagon-maker Titagarh to sail into shipbuilding

The promoters of Titagarh Wagons Ltd are foraying into shipbuilding and the listed entity is likely to pick a stake in the newly floated firm Titagarh Marine Ltd.

“We are already into heavy engineering and we are foraying into shipbuilding now. The new company has already been floated, which is in the process of setting up a shipyard to build vessels at Kakinara in West Bengal and then we plan to expand at Kulpi,” Titagarh Wagons chairman JP Chowdhary said.

The first shipyard, the smaller one, at Kakinara would take shape soon as it is coming up in the group’s existing piece of land, of about 60 acre, belonging to the now-closed Titagarh Paper Mills Ltd, while for the larger project, Titagarh Marine needs to acquire about 447 acre for which it has applied under section 14Y for exemption from the provisions of Land Reforms Act of 1955.

The Act puts a ceiling of 25 acres on land acquisition, while Section 14Y exempts the ceiling in specific cases.

“The group plans to invest close to Rs650 crore in the two projects and how much stake Titagarh Wagons will pick up in the projects would be decided later,” Chowdhary told reporters.

Of this, about Rs200 crore would be invested in the Kakinara projects, while Rs400 crore would be pumped in the Kulpi project.
As of now, the Chowdharys don’t have any specific plan to induct strategic partners for the shipbuilding initiative.

“In Kulpi, we plan to make vessels of length of Panamax size (about 290 metres) and beyond, while in Kakinara we would restrict to vessels of up to 150 metres in length because of the presence of three bridges crossing the stretch joining the open sea with the site where the shipyard is coming up,” Chowdhary said.

Chowdhary doesn’t see land acquisition for the Kulpi project a problem, as the site identified is of low-yielding nature, susceptible to erosion.

“We have already talked to the villagers who have welcomed the project and have even formed co-operatives having members drawn from different and even rival political parties to deal with the land acquisition,” he said.

The port town of Kulpi is located in the South 24 Parnagans district along the Hoogly river, about 78 km south of Kolkata. Kakinara is located 40 km north of Kolkata in Nadia district.