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The Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh, along with the West Bengal Chief Minister, Shri Suvendu Adhikari, performed the Bhumi Pujan on 23 August 2026 for five expansion projects worth about Rs 3,500 crore - three of Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) and two of Yantra India Limited (YIL).
The GRSE projects are at Raichak in South 24-Parganas, Timber Pond in Shalimar (Howrah) and the Damodar facility at Kidderpore Docks, Kolkata; the YIL projects are at the Metal and Steel Factory, Ishapore.
Raichak, a 32-acre riverside plot with a 356-metre waterfront and a draught of 8-10 metres, will take over Rs 2,500 crore and will allow GRSE to build warships up to 200 metres long and commercial vessels of up to 60,000 tonnes deadweight.
YIL's two projects, together over Rs 750 crore, are a 3,000-tonne heavy-duty hydraulic open die forging press replacing a 2,650-tonne press in service since 1976, and a Rs 473.84 crore radial forging plant.
The Raksha Mantri argued that a global 'Capacity Paradox' - rising demand for naval and commercial vessels even as traditional shipbuilding nations lose capacity - gives India an opening to become a global shipbuilding and ship-repair hub.
Defence shipyard at Kolkata under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence. Nationalised in 1960 and granted Miniratna status in September 2006, it was conferred Navratna status by the Department of Public Enterprises through an office memorandum dated 19 June 2026. It has built over 800 vessels, including the Project 17A stealth frigate INS Dunagiri.
One of the seven defence public sector undertakings created when the Ordnance Factory Board was dissolved with effect from 1 October 2021; it handles ordnance metallurgy and general engineering, and operates the Metal and Steel Factory at Ishapore.
The port trust that has leased GRSE the two riverside shipyard plots on either bank of the Hooghly and the 32-acre Raichak property; the Kidderpore Docks it operates already host three dry docks used by GRSE for repairs and refits.
The department that owns and oversees the defence public sector undertakings, including GRSE and YIL, and drives indigenisation policy.
The term used by the Raksha Mantri for a mismatch now opening up in the world shipbuilding market: demand for naval and commercial vessels is rising, while traditional shipbuilding nations are steadily losing capacity. Two forces drive the decline - labour-intensive shipbuilding has become expensive in high-wage economies with shrinking skilled workforces, and the design expertise once concentrated in those countries is thinning as experienced cohorts retire. The gap therefore opens in three places at once: design, manufacturing, and maintenance, repair and overhaul. The argument made from it is that India has the countervailing endowments - a large pool of engineers and IT professionals with simulation and AI skills for design, a skilled workforce, a robust steel industry and an MSME ecosystem for manufacturing, and low capital requirements for MRO, which he called a 'low-hanging fruit' needing only quality, discipline and reliable timelines.
Simple Analogy: Orders are piling up at the workshop just as the old mechanics are retiring and no one is replacing them - the customers have to go somewhere, and whoever has the tools and the hands gets the business.
The Project 17A Nilgiri-class stealth frigate built by GRSE, designed by the Warship Design Bureau, with an indigenous content of about 75 per cent, a displacement of 6,670 tonnes and a length of 149 metres, commissioned in 2026 - the flagship example of what the Kolkata yard now delivers.
Navratna is a tier of enhanced financial and operational autonomy granted by the Department of Public Enterprises; GRSE, a Miniratna since September 2006, was elevated to Navratna in June 2026. Navratna, Maharatna and Miniratna categories are standard exam material.
The 2021 corporatisation into seven DPSUs is a recurring question - both the date (1 October 2021) and the list of seven companies.
MRO is being pushed across aviation and shipping as a low-capital, high-employment services segment where India can substitute imports and earn foreign exchange - the same argument used for aircraft MRO policy.
The Raksha Mantri cited it as demonstrating the operational importance of indigenous weapons and platforms - the link the government now routinely draws between indigenisation policy and battlefield performance.
GS Paper 3 > Indigenisation of Technology and Developing New Technology; Infrastructure
General Awareness > Defence Production and DPSUs
General Awareness > Government Undertakings
General Awareness > PSU Categories and Investment News
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Defence indigenisation, DPSU restructuring and warship classes are recurring UPSC Prelims and defence-exam material.
The vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of a ship's hull; a riverside site's available draught (8-10 metres at Raichak) determines the size of vessel that can be built and floated out there.
The total weight a ship can carry - cargo, fuel, crew and stores. Supramax vessels, of up to about 60,000 DWT, are a standard dry-bulk carrier class.
An inclined ramp on which a ship is built and from which it is launched into the water; distinct from a dry dock, which is a basin that can be drained.
Shaping heated metal between flat or simple dies that do not enclose the workpiece - the method used for very large components such as gun barrels and heavy defence forgings.
A process in which several hammers strike a rotating workpiece from around its circumference, producing precise shafts and hollow tubes such as those used for aerial bombs and railway axles.
The discount rate at which a project's net present value is zero - a standard measure of a project's financial viability, given as 7.3 per cent for the forging press and 10.58 per cent for the radial forging plant.