Mumbai. Swan Defence and Heavy Industries Limited (SDHI), India’s leading shipbuilding and heavy fabrication company, has more than doubled its workforce over the past 18 months. Backed by a rapidly growing order book, SDHI is targeting over 550 additional hires across white-collar and blue-collar roles by March 2027.
The shipyard is actively strengthening its teams across newbuild, repair, and refit operations, including project management, design, supply chain management, heavy fabrication, and civil works. It is also ramping up hiring for specialised skilled trades such as precision welding, fitting, and pipework.
Besides boosting its own workforce, the scaled execution of the ongoing projects at SDHI is also estimated to create at least 5,000 jobs over the next two to three years, through vendor and supply chain partners, providing more employment opportunities within the ecosystem.
Last year, the shipyard launched SWAVALAMBAN, a structured training initiative backed by government and academia, to build a skilled, self-reliant domestic maritime workforce. The program integrates sourcing, pre-onboarding, technical induction, mentorship, and shop floor deployment into a single unified talent journey.
Marking the success of SWAVALAMBAN ahead of World Maritime Day on September 24, SDHI announced that over 100 graduate, postgraduate, diploma engineers, and industrial technicians have already completed training under the framework. The initiative has reduced the transition time of trainees from classroom to shop floor by at least 30%.
SWAVALAMBAN demonstrates how shipyards, government bodies, and educational institutions can collaborate to convert policy ambition into operational execution, reflecting the core ethos of the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) biennium theme: From Policy to Practice: Powering Maritime Excellence.
SWAVALAMBAN was developed by SDHI in consultation with the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), the Directorate of Employment & Training (DET) under the Government of Gujarat, the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), the Indian Maritime University (IMU), and 11 partner Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).
The initiative also introduced India’s first structured, shipbuilding-specific curriculum, co-developed with the IMU, combining rigorous academic instruction with hands-on shop floor experience. SDHI currently leads specialised maritime courses across the 11 participating ITIs.
Commenting on the milestone, Rear Admiral Vipin Kumar Saxena (retd), CEO, Swan Defence and Heavy Industries Limited (SDHI), said, “To support India’s vision of becoming a global maritime powerhouse, we must invest heavily in human capital alongside physical infrastructure. The success of SWAVALAMBAN proves that structured, industry-aligned training can dramatically accelerate technical readiness without compromising safety or quality. Through strong ecosystem partnerships, we are actively cultivating skilled professionals who will form the backbone of our growing shipbuilding and heavy engineering operations.”
As India expands its shipbuilding capacity and blue economy footprint, developing an industry-ready workforce remains a critical national priority, aligning directly with the Government of India’s target of creating 28 million maritime jobs under the Maritime India Vision 2030.
