Kriti Upadhyaya
Nearly 20 years after China stirred fears about “debt trap diplomacy” with its construction and takeover of the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, India is stepping into the fold, acquiring a majority stake in Sri Lanka’s largest commercial shipyard. Last month, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), India’s leading defense public-sector undertaking, responsible for the construction and repair of Indian warships, acquired a majority 51 percent stake in Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC). CDPLC is Sri Lanka’s largest commercial shipyard, located inside Colombo Harbor on one of the world’s busiest east-west shipping lanes.
The transaction, valued at $26.8 million, marks the first international acquisition ever made by an Indian shipyard, public or private. It also suggests India’s strategic calculus in its own maritime neighborhood has structurally evolved. CDPLC is not a greenfield project. It is a functioning, 52-year-old commercial yard with four graving drydocks, capacity to handle vessels up to 125,000 deadweight tons, and a client base spanning Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In November 2025, before the acquisition closed, CDPLC secured the largest shipbuilding contract in its history (valued at $150 million) from France’s Orange Marine for two advanced cable-laying vessels. The yard services more than 200 vessels annually.
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