Will India’s first
aircraft carrier be scrapped or made a museum?
On the eve of the Supreme Court decision whether
India’s first aircraft carrier ‘INS Vikrant’ should be scrapped, former
servicemen made a strong pitch for converting it into a maritime museum.
The Maharashtra government has expressed its
inability to preserve it as a maritime museum owing to financial constraints.
The 16,000-tonne ship, which had helped to enforce a naval blockade of East
Pakistan — now Bangladesh — during the 1971 war, was decommissioned in 1997.
Activists and former servicemen said it was a pity
that the government could not allocate funds to preserve a “national treasure”
even as it was willing to spend Rs. 200 crore to build the Statue of Unity in
Gujarat. “The vessel should serve as an inspiration for the future. It’s a
shame that she is parked opposite the Darukhana ship-breaking yard, the
graveyard of ships,” lamented former Admiral I.C. Rao.
The Bombay High Court had given the go-ahead for the
Vikrant to be auctioned in January, after it rejected a public interest
litigation petition to save the vessel and convert it into a maritime museum.
The Centre said it was difficult to maintain the vessel.
In March, the Indian Navy sold Vikrant to a
Mumbai-based ship breaking company for Rs. 63 crore. However, activists
recently moved the apex court in a bid to save the vessel. The Supreme Court in
May ordered maintenance of status quo.
“The ship is caught in the crossfire between
politicians and scrap syndicate,” said former Captain Lawrence Nathaniel, who
served two years on the vessel during the 1960s.
The former servicemen, who nostalgically recalled
their time on the ship, would also make representations to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
To further their point about the feasibility of the
project, they have chalked out a plan to address the safety concerns of all the
parties concerned. The vessel would be parked on a concrete platform close to
shallow waters, and not kept floating, to avoid the danger of sinking. A
suitable spot, west of Oyster Rock, has been zeroed in to park the imposing
ship. To make the project commercially viable, corporate firms would be invited
to sponsor activities on board and treat it as a tourist hub with a convention
centre, said Mr. Rao. The ship has 2.6 lakh square feet of space, of which
50,000 square feet can be developed into a museum. The other space can be used
as a convention centre. Mr. Rao spoke of the success of similar projects in New
York (USS Trepid) and London (HMS Belfast).
Mr. Nathaniel informed that the Vizag Urban
Development Authority (VUDA) in Andhra Pradesh had agreed to adopt the vessel
as a maritime museum, provided it was brought to the city.The vessel was
purchased as HMS Hercules from Britain in 1957 and rechristened ‘INS Vikrant.’
Source: the hindu.
17 July 2014
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