Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) is a shipyard located in

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

on the east coast of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), 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 and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

History

Founded as the ''Scindia Shipyard'', it was built by industrialist Walchand Hirachand 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, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

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 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India du ...

at a ceremony where the families of Seth Walchand Hirachnd, late Narottam Morarjee, and

Tulsidas Kilachand Tulsidas (; born Rambola Dubey; also known as Goswami Tulsidas; c.1511pp. 23–34.–1623) was a Ramanandi Vaishnava Hindu saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, b ...

, 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 and renamed Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL). In 2010, HSL was transferred from the Ministry of Shipping to the Ministry of Defence. The yard played a critical role in the development of the nuclear-powered

Arihant class submarine The ''Arihant''-class ( in Sanskrit) is a class of Indian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines being built for the Indian Navy. They were developed under the ''Advanced Technology Vessel'' (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-po ...

. In 2022, Hindustan Shipyard Limited registers highest value of production in its history. the value of production from shipbuilding remained at Rs 613 crore marking it as the highest value of production recorded from shipbuilding division in the history of the shipyard.

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 c ...

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 (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

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 designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, eco ...

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 (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

s and repair and support vessels. It also conducts major overhauls of Indian Navy submarines, and is being equipped to construct nuclear-powered submarines. 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