Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated a new state-of-art revamped shipbuilding facility of Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Limited in West Bengal's Howrah district on Tuesday.

The facility at Nazirgunge was recreated by turning around a 200-year-old shipyard on the western bank of the Hooghly River. It was developed by Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), at a cost of Rs 175 crores.

Speaking at the occasion, Sonowal said, “Such a state-of-the-art shipyard will provide a boost to meet the requirements of new generation, high technology, greener vessels to propel growth in inland water transport along the National Waterways."

He further said that the facility will give an impetus to water transport to the northeastern states and to Varanasi in the upstream, and this will enable economic development in the region.

The new facility will focus on building inland river cruise and coastal vessels, deep sea fishing ships, dredgers and others. Under the Sagarmala project, 210 initiatives have been completed at a cost of Rs 1.12 lakh crore so far, the shipping minister said.