New Delhi: Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) Chairman and Managing Director Rear Admiral C. Raghuram (Retd.) has called for a shift towards series production, collaborative rule-making and digital documentation to improve the competitiveness of India's shipbuilding industry.
Speaking at INMARCO 2026 in Mumbai on October 27, Raghuram said India must move beyond demonstrating its ability to build individual ships to delivering vessels repeatedly, on time and at competitive costs.
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Participating in a panel discussion on “Shipyards and Newbuilds: Maritime Landscape 2030”, organised by the Institute of Marine Engineers (India), he emphasised that consistent production, rather than isolated milestones, would be critical to building a globally competitive shipbuilding ecosystem.
“A first ship is a prototype. The fifth ship is a product,” Raghuram said, highlighting the need for Indian shipyards to adopt a production-system approach. He cited an estimated 24% cost gap between Indian and East Asian shipyards, as reported by the Shipyards Association of India, and said incentives could narrow the gap, but sustained series production was necessary to close it.
Highlighting HSL's recent milestones at Visakhapatnam, Raghuram referred to the launch of Surya, the first of five Fleet Support Ships being built for the Indian Navy, on October 6. The 43,500-tonne vessel is targeted to have more than 80% indigenous content and is classed by the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS).
On the same day, HSL laid the keel of the fifth Fleet Support Ship and inaugurated its extended Slipway-4, equipped with a 300-tonne Goliath crane. The facility is designed to handle ships of up to 45,000 deadweight tonnes (DWT).
The shipyard also delivered INS Nipun, its second indigenous Diving Support Vessel, in August.
These developments reflect HSL's efforts to expand its capacity and strengthen domestic shipbuilding capabilities, with a greater emphasis on indigenous content and the execution of complex naval projects.
Raghuram called for closer collaboration among Indian shipyards, classification societies, regulators, equipment manufacturers and vessel owners to shape maritime standards and rules.
He argued that India should have a stronger role in developing the rules under which ships are designed, approved and built. As an initial step, he proposed the joint development of green tugs involving ports, shipyards, classification societies, the Directorate and battery manufacturers.
He also advocated a digital documentation framework for every vessel built in India. Under the proposed system, each ship would have a “digital birth certificate” containing a consolidated record of its technical and material details, including the inventory of hazardous materials required under the Hong Kong Convention.
The record would serve surveyors, shipowners, repair yards and recyclers throughout the vessel's lifecycle, potentially spanning 30 years.
Welcoming government support for the sector, the HSL CMD referred to an estimated demand outlook of around 437 vessels over the next ten years, infrastructure status for Indian-built ships, a Rs 69,725 crore package, a Rs 25,000 crore Maritime Development Fund and a target of 4.5 million gross tonnes (GT) of annual shipbuilding capacity.
He called for clearer delivery timelines to help shipyards plan production, greater participation by Indian designers in international rule-making, and long-term financing and local service support from equipment manufacturers and financial institutions.
Raghuram also proposed that the India Ship Technology Centre support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), design firms and shipyards in developing a shared digital record framework. HSL, he said, was ready to participate in the initiative.
Emphasising the sector's employment potential, he noted that every shipbuilding job creates approximately six additional jobs and said the announced package could generate close to 30 lakh jobs.
Raghuram said Indian shipyards must focus on three priorities outlined by the Defence Minister during his visit to HSL on October 6: indigenous design capabilities, timely delivery and measurable productivity.
Summing up the industry's challenge, he said launching a single ship was a milestone, but delivering successive vessels on schedule would demonstrate the maturity of the shipbuilding industry.
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The panel discussion was moderated by Ankur Anal, Junior Ship Surveyor-cum-ADG (Technical), Directorate General of Maritime Administration. Other panellists included Capt. P. Sunil Kumar of Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Sujith Tooneri of Lloyd's Register, Rajeev Nayyer of Swan Defence and Heavy Industries and former President of the Institute of Marine Engineers (India), and Cdr. Samuel Ranji of First Marine International, Royal HaskoningDHV.
Hindustan Shipyard Limited is a Miniratna Category-I public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, headquartered in Visakhapatnam.
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