Govt run SCI to post net profit of Rs 450 crore in FY16: Gadkari

Mumbai

State-run Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) may report a post-tax profit of Rs 450 crore for the current fiscal, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

“I am told by the Chairman and Managing Director that SCI will report a profit of Rs 450 crore this fiscal,” Gadkari said while speaking at a Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry event here.

The company has reported a profit of Rs 325 crore in the first half of the fiscal year.

Last fiscal, it reported a net profit of Rs 200 crore on a revenue of Rs 4,310 crore.

Gadkari has been repeatedly stressing on the need for government enterprises to be profitable. Last week, he said that the dozen companies under his ministry, including 10 major ports and two shipyards, will report a profit of Rs 6,500 crore.

Meanwhile, in order to save expenditure on dry-docking faced by domestic ship owners, Gadkari said the government is at an advanced stage of setting up dry-docking facilities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.

The total investment in the facility will be around Rs 1,600-1,800 crore and the government will make the entire investment, he said.

He said at present the ships go to Singapore for this purpose and the same job can be done at Andaman and Nicobar Islands for tenth of the cost.

According to a senior government official, the process for setting up the facility has already been initiated and it is at the DPR (detailed project report) stage.

It may take another two years before the project comes up, the official added.

PTI