Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, Visakhapatnam and Marmagao are the primary ship-building centres in India. They are all within the public sector. The private sector shipyards oversee the local needs. Kochi Shipyard, the latest and the largest in India, has been developed in collaboration with Japanese know-how. It can build a ship of 86,000 tonnes dead weight. Two such ships have been rendered thus far. The Visakhapatnam yard can handle passing of ships up to 45,000 DWT. The Visakhapatnam shipyard has built 89 ships since Independence.
Dry docks are meant for fixing colossal ships. Generally they hold ships up to 10,000 DWT. But a dock in Mumbai can allow in a ship with a maximum 20,000 DWT. The other in Vishakhapatnam can allow a ship up to 70,000 DWT and at Kochi up to 1 lakh DWT. The Kochi shipyard has build 3 bulk carriers of 75,000 DWT each. It now manufactures battleships for the Indian Navy. There are plans in the pipeline to manufacture aircraft carriers in India. Such a ship will take a couple of years to reach completion, after the work commences. 62 fishing crafts have been built indigenously and 26 more are under production.
