Around 438 years ago, in the year 1580, the king of Kutch, Maharao Khengarji-I developed the shipbuilding and shipping business in Mandvi. My grandfather in this age still creates replicas of ships to be built at Mandvi to keep the rich history of Mandvi floating.” Mandvi port is witness to India’s richest export-import transactions in last five centuries. We get orders to make replicas from all over the world. Nishant says “In our museum, you will find replicas of ships of Dubai, Muscat, America, Europe and various parts of India. It unfolds the pages of the history of humankind.” The Fofindis have been running this museum for last 60 years and replicas of some of the oldest ships in the world are on exhibition here.
His grandson Nishant Fofindi said, “This is one of the best ship replica museums of the country.
Now his third generation has joined him in this business. He has established a ship replica museum in Mandvi to display the past glory of the shipping industry. Fofindi runs a workshop to design and develop replicas of ships, and based on his model and design the real ships are built in Mandvi and other ports.