Titagarh Wagons on Wednesday said that it has acquired the land and infrastructure of erstwhile Precision Shipyard to expand its ship-building business.

Located at Falta, the ship building infrastructure was acquired by the company through an auction of sale conducted by Union Bank of India. The company has not disclosed the financial details but it will undertake a plan in the coming months on capital expenditure in the project that could help scale up its manufacturing base.

Umesh Chowdhary, managing director and CEO, Titagarh Wagons said that the acquisition is strategic in nature and will help address a major operational constraint of the company. The company has already been building ships for the Indian Navy, National Institute of Ocean Technology in its existing shipyard at Titagarh. But, being north of the Howrah bridge, there was limitation both in water draft and air draft which constrained the company to participate in many tenders.

“With this our limitation of being on the other side of Howrah bridge will be removed, so we can go for much larger vessels in future,” Chowdhary said.

Titagarh has an order book of 18 ships valued at approximately Rs 400 crore and is also building a fast patrol vessel for the Indian Coast Guard.

“Apart from the two well established business lines of the company, i.e, freight and transit & propulsion, the SBD (ship building, bridges and defence) business vertical also is in the centre of the company’s strategy. Titagarh in the coming days would place substantial focus and attention on growing all three aspects of the SBD business,” said Chowdhary.

Saket Kandoi, COO of the SBD business said that the company is targeting for being approved for all categories of ship-building, including warship category, for which Titagarh already has an industrial license.

The board of directors of Titagarh Wagons has also on January 10, 2022 approved a scheme of amalgamation of subsidiary Titagarh Bridges and International Private Limited with the company for efficient utilisation of resources and greater economies of scale.