NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

INS Vikrant to be scrapped

Aircraft-carrier INS Vikrant, which played a leading role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war and liberated Bangladesh is now all set to be scrapped after a Rs 760 million project to convert her into a maritime museum by the Maharashtra government ran into rough weather.

Once the pride of the Indian Navy, it is now headed for a junkyard, ironically, to the country it helped liberate. After being decommissioned on January 31, 1997, it was proposed that the aircraft carrier be converted into a maritime museum.

"We have waited for three years -- and finally it has been decided that she be scrapped," a senior naval official said. Sources said that the tender has been floated for scrapping and disposing the ship after the Directorate of Naval Procurement, New Delhi gave the final go ahead. The Metal Scrap Trading Corporation will float the tender and is likely to go to a scrapyard in Bangladesh.

The official said, "The process to send her to scrapyard has already begun -- as corporates as well as the Maharashtra government did not come forward for converting her into a museum. The erstwhile Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Part alliance government envinced interest to convert her into a museum, but the project could not sail through."

Since Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and other senior officials are in the US, no one was available for comment.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report