Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited is anchoring a new ₹15,000 crore shipbuilding cluster at Dighi in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, as the Navratna defence PSU moves to expand beyond warships into large commercial vessel construction.
Dighi Port is a sea port on the Arabian Sea coast, roughly 78 km from Mumbai port, and is currently operated by Adani Ports & SEZ. Dighi Port is a sea port in Maharashtra, India, on the eastern coast of the Arabian Sea, 42 nautical miles from the Mumbai port, and the port is operated by Adani Ports & SEZ.
The site sits within a larger industrial push in the region. The Dighi Port Industrial Area project is spread over 5,024 hectares in Raigad district. A dedicated shipbuilding cluster there would give MDL a greenfield facility away from its congested Mazagaon yard in Mumbai.
The Dighi move fits into a nationwide cluster strategy the government has been building since last year. The Ministry facilitated MoUs between major ports under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and the state governments of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu for setting up shipbuilding clusters.
These clusters are not standalone yards. Each cluster is designed to house state-of-the-art shipyards along with R&D centres, small industry linkages, ancillary units, specialised training facilities and logistics corridors.
MDL’s Commercial Vessel Push
MDL is best known for building the Navy’s stealth frigates, destroyers and submarines, but it has a long, lesser-known commercial shipbuilding lineage. It manufactures warships and submarines for the Indian Navy and offshore platforms and associated support vessels for offshore oil drilling, and also builds tankers, cargo bulk carriers, passenger ships and ferries.
The yard has already been testing export-oriented commercial orders. It is currently building six Multi-Purpose Vessels for a Denmark-based client, with the keel of the first ship laid at its South Yard in April 2025.
MDL is also separately exploring bigger commercial shipbuilding tie-ups. It is exploring expansion into large commercial shipbuilding, potentially in partnership with South Korean or Japanese firms.
The Dighi cluster adds a dedicated commercial-vessel arm to that ambition, running alongside MDL’s core naval shipbuilding and submarine-building mandate at Mazagaon and its expanding Nhava facility near Mumbai.
MDL traces its lineage to 1774 and holds Navratna status, the first Indian shipyard to be conferred the honour, reflecting its scale as one of the country’s principal defence shipbuilders.
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