Hindustan Shipyard and BHPV to be revived

Visakhapatnam, May 20 (UNI) The UPA Government was actively considering revival of the Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) and the Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels (BHPV) here in a bid to create a new mega industrial hub in the country, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh announced here today.

Lamenting that HSL, the largest shipyard in the East Coast, was passing through difficult times, Dr Singh said it had improved its orders to over Rs 2000 crore now and a proposal for revival was under active consideration. His government would work for the revival.

'I hope with our effort we will once again have a world class ship building industry in Visakhapatnam', he said, while laying the foundation stone for the Rs 8260 crore expansion plan of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).

The UPA government was examining the proposal to revive BHPV and expressed confidence the proposal would be finalised 'very soon'.

Apart from the shipyard and steel plant, the 'new magnet of growth' had emerged in this region creating a greater Visakhapatnam between here (Vizag) and Kakinada near Godavari. He visualised a hundred miles of modern industrial corridor developing between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in the years to come.

'This region, based on agricultural prosperity, high quality education and excellent connectivity and blessed with gas and other resources will become a mega industrial region of the country'.

Asserting that India had to speed up industrialisation to provide jobs to youth, reduce pressure on agriculture and take advantage of human resources, the Prime Minister said 'we have to increase the share of the industrial sector in the national income and employment generation. A country of our size and our capabilities must have a much bigger and more efficient industrial sector.' UNI DB AA 1410