India’s largest engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) is negotiating with global shipping fleet owners to build ships worth over $1b, but the company cannot finalize these orders because it still hasn’t received the requisite clearances for its shipyard from a local government. L&T plans to set up the country’s biggest shipbuilding facility at Kattupalli in Tamil Nadu in an effort to tap growing domestic and global demand for ships. The company will invest around Rs3,000 crore in the shipyard and port project and will build cargo ships, warships and offshore oil rigs. The shipyard at Kattupalli will be capable of building 25 big ships in a year and repair another 50-60 ships.
