The government has asked private companies to indicate interest in building a shipyard on the west and east coasts.
The company told a gathering of analysts about the new ports on Friday. M V Kotwal, its senior executive vice-president, heavy engineering, told Business Standard about the shipyard.
The lead company for the ports will be L&T-Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd, its subsidiary that is the lead company for all of its land construction projects.
L&T will build the ports, operate it for a while and then transfer it to L&T-IDPL. Consequently, the new ports, like shipbuilding, will not sit on L&T's books though it will reap the benefits as the constructor of the projects.
The company refused to give more details of the projects, though its chief financial officer, Y M Deosthalee, told analysts that the company was looking seriously at this business model.
L&T is already involved in the building of a port at Dhamra in Orissa - this one is in partnership with Tata Steel and will be owned jointly - and another at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh in conjunction with the state government. At Haldia in West Bengal, it extended the port and built a new berth.
"Healthy growth in the shipping sector with decent returns will help the company derive maximum benefits from this project", said a Mumbai based analyst.
L&T is also constructing three airports: the new one coming up in Delhi (as the main contractor, end to end), at Bangalore as a constructor and an equity partner, and at Hyderabad (as the constructor).