After she took to the skies in a Indian Air Force Sukhoi fighter jet, president Pratibha Patil may have an underwater odyssey amid plans to set sail this month-end on INS Viraat, India's sole aircraft carrier, which just turned 50.
While the date was being confirmed by the Navy and the Rashtrapati Bhavan officials for December 28, official sources said today the president, after reviewing the Navy's Western fleet in Mumbai, will leave for Nilayam in Hyderabad for her annual winter retreat.
This visit will also give the supreme commander of armed forces an opportunity to get a first-hand view of the Navy's preparedness in coastal security after the Mumbai terror attacks last year, the sources said.
Patil is unlikely to spend a night on board the aircraft carrier which crossed the golden jubilee milestone on November 18. The service life of the aircraft carrier is expected to last till 2015, nearly 15 years over and above its life span of 40 years.
The president's sea sojourn comes barely a month after Patil took to the skies in IAF's frontline fighter aircraft -- Sukhoi 30MKI. She went up to the height of over 8,000 feet as a co-pilot in the plane which was commandeered by Wing Commander S Sajjan of Pune-based 30 'Rhinos' squadron.
The 28,000-tonne Centaur class aircraft carrier, which was originally commissioned in the British Royal Navy as HMS Hermes on November 18, 1959, was later bought by India in 1987 and rechristened INS Viraat.
The warship, which has already served the Indian Navy for 23 years now, recently rejoined the fleet after a year-long upgrade to give it a life extension for another five years.
It had only recently moved from Cochin Shipyard, where it was being refitted, to Mumbai as the flagship of the Indian Navy. INS Viraat will now serve the Navy till 2015, much beyond its service life of 40 years.
By that time, the Navy expects Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, bought from Russia in 2004, to join its fleet, and the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) being built in Kochi too would be ready for induction by 2015.
