Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) is a

public sector undertaking Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) in India are State-owned enterprise, government-owned entities in which at least 51% of stake is under the ownership of the Government of India or State governments of India, state governments. These types of f ...

shipyard located in

Visakhapatnam Visakhapatnam (; List of renamed places in India, formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the States and union territories of India, Indian stat ...

, on the east coast of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. HSL is a major shipyard in India, with a capacity to manufacture vessels up to 80,000

deadweight tonnage Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water Fresh water or ...

(DWT). The shipyard is the 2nd biggest after

Cochin Shipyard Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) is the largest shipbuilding and maintenance facility in India. Cochin Shipyard is part of a line of maritime-related facilities in the port-city of Kochi, in the States and union territories of India, state of Kerala, ...

History

Founded as the ''Scindia Shipyard'', it was built by industrialist

Walchand Hirachand Walchand Hirachand Doshi (23 November 1882 – 8 April 1953) was an Indian industrialist and the founder of the Walchand group. He established India's first modern shipyard, first aircraft factory and first car factory; he also established con ...

as a part of The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. Walchand selected Visakhapatnam as a suitable location for the construction of the yard and took possession of the land in November 1940. The foundation stone for the shipyard was laid by Dr.

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

on 21 June 1941, who was at that time the acting

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

President. The first ship to be constructed fully in India after independence was built at the Scindia Shipyard and named ''Jal Usha''. It was launched in 1948 by

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

at a ceremony where the families of Seth Walchand Hirachnd, late Narottam Morarjee, and Tulsidas Kilachand, the partners of Scindia Shipyard, were present along with other dignitaries and industrialists. Walchand died in 1953, and the Scindia Shipyard continued to operate successfully under the next of kin of the founders. However, in 1961 the shipyard was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

and renamed Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL). In 2010, HSL was transferred from the Ministry of Shipping to the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. In 2022, Hindustan Shipyard Limited registers highest value of production in its history. the value of production from shipbuilding remained at ₹613

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

marking it as the highest value of production recorded from shipbuilding division in the history of the shipyard. In April 2025, the shipyard got a profitable turnover in close to four decades after years of narrow losses. The shipyard aims to achieve the

miniratna Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) in India are government-owned entities in which at least 51% of stake is under the ownership of the Government of India or state governments. These types of firms can also be a joint venture of multiple PSUs. ...

status.

Ships built by the company

Floating_out_of_VC11184_ocean_surveillance_ship

* Nand Rati(1984) * Lok Rajeswari(1988) * MV Goa(1997) * Tamilnadu(2000) * MV Good Princess(2008) * MV Good Pacific(2008) * Good Precedent(2011) * Indian Grace(1978) * Indian Glory(1978) * Indian Explorer(1976) * TS Rajendra(1972)

Facilities

The shipyard is relatively compact at . It is equipped with the

plasma cutting Plasma cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma. Typical materials cut with a plasma torch include steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper, although other ...

machines, steel processing and welding facilities, material handling equipment, cranes, logistics and storage facilities. It also has testing and measuring facilities. It has a covered building dock for building vessels up to 80,000 DWT. There are three slipways and a

fitting-out Fitting out, or outfitting, is the process in shipbuilding that follows the float-out/launching of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her o ...

jetty. HSL has a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

, wet basin and repair delphin for ship and

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

repair and retrofitting.

Vessels

By 2009, over 192 vessels had been built at HSL through 2009 and the shipyard had repaired almost 2000 ships. It builds

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...

offshore patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and th ...

s, survey ships, drill ships,

offshore platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms wi ...

s and repair and support vessels. It also conducts major overhauls of

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

submarines, and is being equipped to construct

nuclear-powered submarines A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear weapons, nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically Marine diesel engine, diesel-elect ...

. However, the shipyard has a history of protracted refits. The submarines ''Vela'', ''Vagli'', and ''Sindhukirti'' each spent almost 10 years for a single refit at HSL. Where a Russian shipyard would deploy 200 workers in three shifts to complete the refit in two years, HSL deployed only 50 workers to work on ''Sindhukirti''.

References

External links

Website
{{Walchand Group Shipyards of India Shipbuilding companies of India Government-owned companies of India Companies based in Visakhapatnam Companies nationalised by the Government of India Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1941 Economy of Visakhapatnam Walchand Group Indian companies established in 1941