TEAM HERALD
VASCO: Stating that Goa Shipyard Limited has all the technical expertise to build hovercraft, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said the GSL will be the first shipyard in the country to construct hovercraft with the help of Griffin, a UK-based company.
Addressing GSL employees and management staff during his first visit to GSL, a defence public sector undertaking company, Parrikar said the technical association of making hovercraft at GSL is at the last stage and the contract is awarded to Griffin. “Goa should be proud as GSL will be the first shipyard in Goa to build hovercraft,” he said.
“Though GSL is small in size compared to other defence shipyards, it has got more technical capabilities and has always delivered the vessels on time,” he added.
Commenting on decline in government orders to GSL, Parrikar said for the last several years the orders to GSL have declined and production from Rs 11 crore came down to Rs 5 crore, due to delay in taking decisions by the previous government. “I will try to increase the production capacity to Rs 2,000 crore within a year,” he assured.
He hoped that GSL will follow the concept of ‘Make in India’ and take as many orders as possible from the Defence Ministry.
On solving local problems, Parrikar urged GSL to take the help of the four MLAs from Mormugao taluka instead of immediately taking the issue to the respective higher ups.
Earlier, GSL CMD Shekar Mithal, GSL Workers Union President Kishor Shet and Vinayak Nayak brought to Parrikar’s notice the drop in production at the shipyard.
