The World’s first autonomous maritime shipyard and systems centre will be constructed in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh.

Around 29.58 acres of land at the Juvvaladinne Fishing Harbour in Bogolu Mandal was allotted to Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt. Ltd for building the world-class facility.

This decision by the state’s cabinet is a major milestone in the country’s drive to strengthen its indigenous capability for surface and subsurface maritime platforms, thereby improving India’s maritime technology infrastructure.

Capt. Nikunj Parashar, Founder & CMD, Mridul Babbar, Co-Founder & CFO, and Lakshay Dang, Co-Founder & CEO, founded Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt Ltd in 2015.

The company specialises in unmanned or autonomous systems for land, sea and air to support defence, scientific and commercial sectors with ISR, surveillance capacity and smart logistics solutions.

It also plans to construct a Digital Ocean using real-time data from autonomous platforms.

The company has called the centre a transformative development at a time when the global marine industries are advancing towards AI, unmanned systems and robotics to streamline operations and reduce accidents at sea.

The facility would accelerate innovation, reshape industrial practices and set new benchmarks.

It will also influence defence readiness, boost commercial shipping efficiency, improve environmental performance by enabling marine engineers, researchers and port officials to conduct real-time trials, shortening innovation cycles and reducing the country’s dependence on international test facilities.

The centre’s research and development and testing ecosystem would benefit sectors including fisheries, disaster response and port operations.

A major component of the project is a Maritime Test Centre, which would support autonomous research, development, prototyping and validation.

The initiative would change the way ships are built and sustained, ushering in a safe, smart, highly efficient and sustainable maritime era.