Following are excerpts from a news item in Tathya.in.

… the Bharati Shipyard Limited (BSL), a major private shipyard and the Apeejay Surendra Group, an industrial conglomerate have joined hands to set up the-State-of-the-art shipbuilding yard and ship repair yard project at Dhamra in Orissa.

The mega shipyard project will entail an investment of Rs.2200 crore in 3 phases.

Employment opportunities in this labor intensive industry will be 41,000 in the third phase, reveals the proposal submitted to the State Government.

… Revealing the strength of the state over others, the promoter said that easy availability of raw material like steel, availability of large number of skilled, unskilled man power and above all the proactive government policies dotted with positive environment for investors are creating conducive atmosphere for a mega shipyard in the state.

The requirement of steel in shipbuilding and repairing has been projected as in the first phase it will be up to 75,000 MT per annum, while in second phase it will go up to 2,30,000 MT.

In the final phase the steel requirement will go up to 4, 50,000 MT said the source.

… The proposed site has been identified near the Dhamra Port, where out of 1500 acres surveyed 1050 acre of land has been provisionally selected for the mega shipyard.

According to implementation schedule the promoters have decided to go for Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Government of Orissa in the month of October.

Once MOU in place than other activities will follow, said the source.

Rehabilitation Plan will be taken up in accordance with the present Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy of the State Government.

… Milestones set up for the project envisages that Master Plan will be ready in the next year and construction of the shipyard will begin in mid of 2008.

The Joint venture promoters feel that the project will complete its first phase construction in early 2009 to begin commercial production by middle of the year.