Govt notifies guidelines for 2 major shipbuilding initiatives

The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) has notified guidelines for two major ship building initiatives with a total outlay of over Rs 44,700 crore.

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

‘The two initiatives — the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFAS) and the Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS) — are aimed at strengthening the country’s domestic shipbuilding capacity and improving global competitiveness, as per an official statement.

Under SBFAS, which has a total corpus of Rs 24,736 crore, the government will provide financial assistance of 15-25 per cent per vessel, depending on the category of the vessel.

The SbDS, with a budgetary outlay of Rs 19,989 crore, focuses on long-term capacity and capability creation.

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), Sarbananda Sonowal said that these guidelines create a stable and transparent framework that will revive domestic shipbuilding, boosting forward and backward linkages, the official statement said.