57 years of distinguished service later, first as HMS Hermes in the Royal British Navy and with the Indian Navy since 1987, the warhorse INS Viraat is staring at an undignified end of its life cycle.
Now, already due for decommissioning, the aircraft carrier with a glorious history, including participation in the Falkland war of 1982, has no takers. It faces similar fate as the 1971 war hero INS Vikrant, which was reduced to a heap of scrap in 2014, after preserved as a museum in Mumbai from 1997 and 2012.
Last year, in August, the Navy, keen to see Viraat converted into a tourist attraction like a museum, had shared its concern with the ministry of defence (MoD). MoD, in turn, wrote to nine maritime state governments – West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat – asking them if they would be interested in taking the custody of the decommissioned ship.
Although some of them showed interest, none came up with a feasible model to maintain the decommissioned warship, which involves huge costs, a senior MoD functionary told dna.
Notably, the Andhra Pradesh government took over the submarine INS Kursura, after its decommissioning in 2001, and converted it to a museum. It's now a major tourist attraction in Visakhapatnam.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, in fact, wrote a letter to defence minister Manohar Parrikar last year showing its interest in Viraat. However, after that, Andhra government has not given any model to take the possession, said the functionary, adding that fresh letters in this regard will go out to the chief secretaries of the nine maritime states from the defence secretary's office.
Sources said that the Navy is keen to preserve the rich legacy of Viraat but has little resources, both monetary and human, to dispense with for a ship not in use, and would rather prefer to divert them to new and existing ships.
INS Viraat, one of the two aircraft carriers with the Navy (the other being INS Vikramaditya), has a combined strength of about 1,500 officers and sailors, including the aviation crew. It participated in the multi-nation International Fleet Review in February as her last operational deployment. Her full complement includes six Sea Harrier fighter jets, six Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters and four Chetak helicopters.
"Viraat has to go for the final dry docking at Cochin before decommissioning. We are looking to find takers for it before we let it retire," said a senior Naval officer.
Caption: Aerial shot of Viraat, with its full complement, sailing for International Fleet Review in February, 2015 (file pic)
