The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the dismantling of decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat after hearing a petition by a firm seeking to convert the ship into a maritime museum and multi-functional adventure centre. The court also issued notice to the company that bought the ship from the government to be made into scrap.
A last-ditch effort was made to save India’s longest-serving warship after a Mumbai-based company, named Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt Limited, had come forward to convert the ship into a maritime museum that will be docked in the Zuari river in Goa. The Goa government has also come on board for the project and written to the Ministry of Defence in this regard.
The longest-serving warship in the world, INS Viraat was decommissioned three years ago after over three decades of service. Since then efforts have been on to save it from the fate that INS VIKRANT had met — dismantled in Bombay in 2014.
No corporate house was willing to put in the money for a museum. States like Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had shown interest but intentions did not travel far enough to save the ship.
But that was not the only problem. Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, at an event to bid adieu to the warship, said the government was willing to spend Rs 400-500 crore on the museum project, but experts warned the ship would not last for more than 10 years.
INS Viraat was originally commissioned by the British Royal Navy as HMS Heremes on November 18, 1959, and saw action during the Falklands War in 1982. In 1986, the Indian Navy brought it and since then it has been its centerpiece, sailing 5,88,287 nautical miles.
This means it has spent seven years in sea, circumnavigating the globe 27 times. The Navy is hoping its ‘Mother’ can be saved from an undignified end.
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