KOCHI: In its efforts to facilitate the growth of Kochi as the maritime hub of India, public sector enterprise Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) will throw open a 70,000 sq ft ‘Knowledge Centre’ at Girinagar here in the coming months. “To be christened ‘Pratibha Sagar’, the facility will primarily host CSL’s Marine Engineering Training Institute (METI), which is currently located on the CSL premises. Over the past 25 years, the METI has turned out more than 2,400 competent marine engineers; working in different shipping companies around the world,” Madhu S Nair, CMD, CSL told Express. He added the knowledge centre will also host a series of courses aimed at providing certification for technicians in the field of fitting, welding, instrumentation, among others, in the shipping industry.
These short term-courses are aimed at boosting the employability factor of potential candidates. The Rs 30-crore hub set up on a 4-acre plot in the heart of the city comes with residential facilities for 100 students of Marine Engineering at METI.CSL also aims to provide training to 300-odd technicians, annually with their short-term modules, with a duration spanning from 6-12 months.
“We will be recruiting faculties with exhaustive experience for the same and are hopeful of throwing open the facility open by early-2019,” said Madhu.
With CSL’s plans of setting up an ancillary park in Kochi where numerous firms in the industry are expected to set shop giving a fillip to the maritime economy, it expects a surge in job opportunities in the coming years within the industry. “More than 25 companies have expressed interest to be part of the park in Kochi, and we expect to create 3,000 jobs as a result of it,” said Madhu.
The shipbuilding industry which faced a slowdown, post the financial crisis in 2008, has not really picked up owing to weak global demand for new vessels. It is expected to improve as demand for smaller vessels to operate on inland waterways and coastal shipping picks up pace.Currently, most of India’s shipbuilding capacity is dependent on orders from the Navy.