Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

The Defence Ministry has awarded Larsen & Toubro (L&T) a contract worth Rs 977 crore to design and construct 36 high-speed interceptor boats for the Coast Guard. This is part of the initiatives taken by the Centre to strengthen coastal security.

The interceptor boats will feature an aluminium-alloy hull construction with water jet propulsion, to enable quick response, vital for such applications. The design of the boats is being done in-house by L&T at its ship design centre, which is part of its heavy engineering division. The boats will be built at L&T's shipyard at Hazira (Gujarat) and at its new shipyard coming up at Kattupalli, near Chennai.

The company has been building special purpose semi-submersible RO-RO (roll on/ roll off) and LO-LO (lift on/ lift off) and heavy lift ships for export at its Hazira shipyard in Gujarat, which is capable of building vessels up to 20,000 DWT (dead weight tonnage). The first boat is scheduled for delivery in 18 months.