Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) Cmde Hemant Khatri, has predicted the emergence of Visakhapatnam as a shipbuilding and ship repair hub by 2047.

He was speaking at an event organised by Vizagapatam Chamber of Commerce & Industry (VCCI) under a programme “Speaker Session” on “Emerging Trends & Opportunities” in their respective fields.

Members from CII and AP Chambers attended. Along with Khatri, Dr Jitendra Sharma, MD & Founder CEO, AP Med Tech Zone (AMTZ) and Manomay Rai, CEO, GMR Visakhapatnam International Airport Ltd (GMR VIAL) addressed the gathering.

VCCI president Sudarsan Swamy spoke on objectives of VCCI-to assist members in their businesses and also work for the well-being of Vizag and its residents. He highlighted the changes taking place in the external scenario and the accompanying opportunities and challenges.

In his presentation, Cmde Khatri traced the history of HSL from being a loss-making unit till 2016 to its current profitability. He opined that, by 2047, Vizag will become a hub of ship-building and repairs and attract several other activities like water sports and tourism.

While this will create jobs and wealth for Vizag, there will be several challenges to be overcome, some of which are the dire shortage of skilled manpower, need for local industry to become service providers rather than being mere suppliers of parts, develop expertise to become turnkey contractors, attain scale so as to be eligible to be considered for large orders and lower interest rates.

Future plans include resumption of commercial ship building and construction of green vessels. As their order book is over Rs 20,000 crore, there is immense scope for MSMEs to be associated with HSL, he pointed out.