Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Maritime Board (KMB) has signed an agreement with a firm to develop a shipyard to manufacture small and medium ships under public private partnership (PPP) model at Ponnani port. The facility, which will be second after Kochi, will come up in the western side of Ponnani harbour.The shipyard, to be built in two phases at Rs 1,000 crore, will manufacture small and medium ships and make Ponnani an important hub in ship building, said a KMB official.In the first phase, the facility will make small vessels – to ferry passengers on short routes, to carry regional cargo or feeder vessels that travel between small ports. A wharf will be built close to the breakwater for the purpose. The infrastructure needed for setting up a shipyard for larger ships will be laid during the phase. The first phase will have an investment of Rs 200cr.Small and medium vessels are required because the state govt is planning to develop small ports under KMB for cargo movement and also for passenger movement to cater to tourism. The yard will build large vessels during its phase two, which is likely to be implemented in 10 years. This will make Ponnani on a par with Cochin Shipyard.“The ship building yard project is part of developing the port into a maritime hub,” the official said.In addition to the yard, a shipbuilding training institute will also be set up to create human resource for the project. Ponnani port is one of the oldest historical port of Malabar Coast and is among the five non-major ports which the state govt is planning to develop.It has two breakwaters at the mouth of Bharathapuzha that can be used for fishing vessels moving in and out of fishing harbour. The port has the potential to cater to cruise ships and break-bulk cargo.
