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Our Bureau

Also scouts for a bigger location for manufacture of bigger boats

Pune , May 9

The Pune-based Sunny Water Sports Products Pvt Ltd would become the first company in the country to manufacture the first sea going luxury tourist double-decker boats with a capacity of 60 passengers. The company manufactures these boats in fibre-reinforced plastic.

Talking to presspersons, Mr Sunny Sebastian, Managing Director, Sunny Water Sports, said the sea going luxury tourist double-decker boat, with a V-Hull propelled by Ashok Leyland 140 HP marine engine coupled to a reduction gearbox imported from England. The boat can cruise at a speed of 15 knots and can also touch 25 knots using high horse power engine. The steering system is hydraulic, fully imported from Australia.

Mr Sunny said the boats are being manufactured currently at in Pimpri, the twin city of Pune and the factory is spread over half an acre of land. He said the investment for setting up this has to been to the tune of Rs 1 crore and added the company is also scouting for a bigger location for manufacture of bigger boats. The company is looking at Roha or Ratnagiri, the coastal areas, for the new facility and this would entail an investment ranging between Rs 2 crore and Rs 2.5 crore.

Swamp board

Mr Sunny said the company was also the first in the country to manufacture swamp board, propelled by air propellers, which are currently being used by the Jammu and Kashmir Police to operate on the Dal Lake in Srinagar.

The company has also introduced inflatable, rigid inflatable boards, flat boats and other life saving equipment. Pedal boats, speedboats and eco-friendly electrical solar boats up to 32-seater capacity are the other boats currently being manufactured.

He said the company has a manufacturing capacity of about 400 sports boats and about 60 tourism boats. Mr Sunny said design and hull construction of boats manufactured by Sunny have been approved by the Indian Registrar of Shipping (IRS). The IRS has also approved all the materials used for the construction of boats, he said. Looking at the market he said the water sports tourism in the country was growing at about five per cent per annum and was valued at Rs 50 crore.

Plans tie-up with Rigada

Mr Sunny, talking to Business Line said the company would be signing a technical collaboration agreement with the Hungary-based Rigada 2000 for bringing in the latest technology to the Indian shores. He said the Hungarian company use carbon fibre materials for the construction of its boats and the intention was to bring in the same technology here so as to build better sports boats.

He said initially it would be looking into rowing boats, kayaks and canoes and was expecting the manufacture to begin by September this year. He said these would continue to be manufactured at the current set up while noting that an investment of close to Rs 2.5 crore would be required, especially for the equipments that would have to be brought in. He said the target market for the new products would be the domestic as also the Asian countries.

Giving an overview of the next one-year plan, he said development work has already begun on the solar energy driven 32-seater boat. The boat would be launched by October this year. The other programmes include solar energy run houseboats, basically targeting the Kerala houseboats. He said the company is developing an eco friendly pollution free houseboat to cater to the Kerala tourists.

Mr Sunny also noted that presently the hull of the boats was being done out of 100 ft log. He said enquiries for such houseboats from across the globe have started coming in looking at the Kerala houseboats and the company has already begun work on making fibreglass modules, which could be exported across.

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