• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Mr A.M. Naik

G. Gurumurthy

Coimbatore, Oct. 17

The engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro has plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore on its proposed port-cum-shipbuilding project and Tamil Nadu is its preferred investment destination for the project.

“L&T has shortlisted both Tamil Nadu and Gujarat as project locations but we are very serious that South is our priority,” said Mr A.M. Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, L&T.

The L&T Chairman, present at the formal commissioning of new manufacturing facilities at its Coimbatore growth centre at Malumitchampatti near here on Wednesday, told Business Line that though the Gujarat Government was willing to give any amount of land or any location his organisation was keen to set up the project in the South due to its skilled workforce.

But in the event of any further delay in getting the project put on keel in Tamil Nadu, L&T would be left with no choice but to turn to Gujarat. “I hope by the first week of November we’ll know whether we will go forward here or not,” Mr Naik said.

L&T has set its energy on promoting the port-cum-shipyard project as a separate subsidiary that will be run outside its flagship, considering the global demand for shipbuilding capacity, especially in the sophisticated ocean going vessel manufacturing.

In the event of Tamil Nadu seizing this opportunity, the Rs 3,000-crore project will also spin off mass employment as it is expected to generate 5,000 new jobs.

L&T is set on capacity expansion-cum-business expansion plans cutting across its different business units including its flagship ECC division and L&T Infotech. Of the 35,000 employees under its fold, L&T’s largest workforce would be naturally employed in its Tamil Nadu operations spread across Chennai, Kancheepuram and Coimbatore complexes.

At present, L&T has a small shipbuilding facility at Hazira in Gurajat where it is building ships on the orders received from Dutch and Russian shipping companies.

The engineering company, which has proposed supercritical boiler project under joint venture with Mitsubishi and the turbine manufacturing facility for power utilities, has chosen Hazira for these two projects, subject to land allocation from the State Government. “We hope the Tamil Nadu and Gujarat Government’s decision on land allocation would be known in the next two weeks’ time,” L&T officials said.

Mr Naik, accompanied by other top-ranking L&T officials including Mr J.N. Mukhija, President (Operations) and member of the Board, visited the four new facilities inaugurated on Wednesday at the Coimbatore growth centre.

The new facilities are the petroleum dispensing pump system, precision machining (tool room) — both manufacturing facilities — an engineering centre for electrical systems, and an administrative building.

The Coimbatore complex under its first phase of works would generate 2,000 jobs and under its second-phase growth would yield 7,000 to 8,000 jobs. The facilities would also ramp-up export business upto 30 per cent over the years.

More Stories on : Shipping | Outlook | Larsen & Toubro Ltd | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
MDLR group to launch cargo airline

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line