The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai has developed a formulation for underwater painting for the first time in India. At present, none of the Indian firms or multinational paint companies in the country produce underwater coating.

Professor AS Khanna from department of metallurgical engineering and materials science, who is also the chairman of society for surface protective coatings India (SSPC) told Financial Chronicle, “A team of researchers from our department have developed a sophisticated formulation for underwater coating for the first time in India.”

The commercial production will begin by the end of this year by Larsen & Toubro, which has funded the research, he said. The IP and branding were yet to be finalised with the company, he added.

Khanna said at present India imported underwater coating from the UK, the US, Japan and Portugal. The product’s market size in India is Rs 250-Rs 300 crore annually, he added. “The market size will more than double in less than five years when Krishna-Godavari Basin, off the Bay of Bengal, of Reliance Power and British major Cairn Energy in Barmer, Rajasthan, will go into full scale production of gas,” he said.

“The demand for underwater coating application used mainly in marine business and oil and gas companies among others will shoot up, increasing business opportunities,” Khanna said.

K J Aiyangar, SSPC secretary and general manager (protective coating), Berger Paints India, said the decorative and industrial paint market size was Rs 12,000 crore. “It is growing by 15 per cent as per Frost & Sullivan market research,” Aiyangar said, and added that the auto industry and ancillary units alone in the country consumed paint worth over Rs 2,000 annually.

Khanna has submitted a 100-page proposal to guarantee the paint of a railway arch bridge over Chennab river in Jammu and Kashmir for 35 years. According to Khanna, the Indian railways consumes 40 per cent of the decorative and high performance coatings. “The conventional painting last for 15-18 years whereas Japan has developed a hybrid system of coating to last for 25-50 years,” Khanna said.