PTI

New Delhi: Engineering and construction company, Larsen & Tuobro has shortlisted three locations for its next shipyards on which the company will invest up to Rs2,000 crore.

“We are in the stage of finalizing the locations for our shipyards. We have shortlisted Kakinanda in Andhra Pradesh and two others are near Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Mundra (Gujarat),” L&T senior executive vice-president, Heavy Engineering M V Kotwal told PTI.

He said the company expects to finalize locations in the next few months and would take “another two and half years for the new shipyard to be operational”.

Asked about the investments on the new shipyards, Kotwal said L&T would invest between Rs1,500 crore and Rs2,000 crore.

“The new shipyards will be focusing on three segments. One will be for defence ship production, another for niche commercial applications like CNG and LNG carriers while the third activity would be for ship repairing,” he added.

With the government allowing private sector participation in defence contracts, the company has been eyeing orders from the Indian navy.

L&T already has a shipyard at Hazira in Gujarat, which is mainly into building of specialised vessels like survey ships, offshore and multi-support vessels.

The company had won its first order for ship building last year from Dutch company Zadeko Ship Management CV for 98 million dollars.