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World War II era aircraft carrier INS Vikrant (R11)
in action during the Liberation War of Bangladesh. India is scrapping the
vessel, the first aircraft carrier of the nation, which played a significant
role during the war in 1971. Photo: Wikipedia
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The hull of the decommisioned Vikrant, which “once
controlled the sea and ended a war”, was torn open on Friday at the breaking
yard in south Mumbai, ending the journey of India's first aircraft carrier.
The first to fall, 15 minutes before sunset, was
the angled deck, which will be remembered for launching the most iconic air
raid which destroyed most ships at the harbours in then East Pakistan, playing
a crucial role in the Liberation War, 1971.
“It is a national shame that we could not save an
iconic ship like her,” said Vice Admiral (Retd) IC Rao, who served onboard INS
Vikrant as a chief engineer in 1975-76. He came to the breaking yard to bid her
farewell, The Indian Express reported yesterday.
“She is irreplaceable. During the '71 war, she cut
off the Pakistani Army's route and their morale was destroyed, shortening the
war. I will keep complaining about the lack of public spiritedness, value of
history and misgoverance. We sold our nation's pride for a mere Rs 60 crore,”
said Vice Admiral Rao.
“It was like seeing our own house being brought
down because we could no longer afford to live in it. She has now joined the
world of scrap.”
In the 1971 war, after successfully evading Pak
submarine PNS Ghazi in the Bay of Bengal, INS Vikrant unleashed furious air
power on Chittagong, Khulna and Cox's Bazar, completely decimating any
defensive capability there. After six days of unrelenting attacks, the
Vikrant's Sea Hawk's ensured East Pakistan was fully contained from the sea.
INS Vikrant's performance in the 1971 war cannot be
understated, said an India Today article titled “Ten reasons why India should
preserve INS Vikrant.”
With severe mechanical problems, including a failed
boiler that potentially crippled flight operations and cruising speed, she
still managed to bring a formidable fight to the enemy, earning her crew 2 Maha
Vir Chakra and 12 Vir Chakra gallantry decoration.
The once-majestic aircraft carrier was bought in an
e-auction by Mumbai-based IB Commercials Ltd.
"A team of around 200 people has been deployed
to dismantle and break down the ship after we completed all legal and technical
formalities and secured all requisite clearances from the agencies
concerned," Abdul Karim Jaka, director of the company, told IANS from the
breaking yard at Powder Bunder in southeast Mumbai.
IB Commercial Pvt Ltd, which had won the bid to
scrap the ship for Rs 63.02 crore in January, now hopes to earn a margin of 2-3
per cent for the scrap.
The process, which started on Thursday with the
first blow hammered on its front portion, is expected to be completed within
7-8 months.
More than 60 percent of the artefacts from the
aircraft carrier, which was bought from Britain in 1957, were moved to the
Maritime History Society in Mumbai while rest was shifted to the Naval Aviation
Museum in Goa before she was handed over for dismantling.
At the breaking yard, huge cranes separated the
ferrous from the non-ferrous parts as soon as labourers removed parts of the
fallen angled deck. Metal inspectors went about recording the content of each
piece of scrap metal and separating it.
“Everything that comes of the ship is quality
product. The navy is not restricted by budget when spending on a ship,
especially an aircraft carrier, so there is no impurity,” said Zuber Jaka, 22,
director of IB Commercial.
Jaka said the non-ferrous parts of the ship earns
the most and is exported. The ferrous scrap will be sent to the rolling mills
and the “unrollable” parts -- referring to thermocol -- will be sent to the
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board for “safe disposal”.
If the ferrous parts sell for Rs 24 per kg, the
non-ferrous parts sell for Rs 300 per kg, he said. And the ship with a gross
registered tonnage of 21,067 tonnes, has a lot of it.
The company, which is paying Rs 1.40 lakh to the
Mumbai Port Trust for using its land for ship breaking, will take another six
to eight months to dismantle the entire ship.
“When we bought the ship, we were proud to get the
opportunity to scrap 'desh ki shaan', but also a little sad. But the long delay
and the wishes of many to preserve the ship made us feel bad about the
lucrative deal we had struck,” said Abdul Karim Jaka, another director of IB
Commercial.
The Jaka family is now relieved that the scrapping
had begun.
“The SC ruled in our favour as the authorities and
the navy thought it was not feasible to convert it into a museum. We also
offered to hand over the ship to those who protested against the dismantling
after paying for the ship. Once everything failed and we got permission from
the port trust to break the ship, we just got to work,” he said.
Oblivious to Vikrant's historical achievements, the
contractor who controlled the winch that brought down the angled deck said he
cannot afford to be emotional. “This is my line of work so I cannot get
emotional about these things. This is my second naval ship, and I have helped
break many a ship in my 12 years of work. But this one was definitely the most
famous,” said Ghanshyam Yadav, the contractor.
Earlier, the Maharashtra government had expressed
its inability to maintain Vikrant, which was decommissioned in January 1997. In
January 2014, during the hearing of a PIL which opposed the plan to scrap the
ship, the Defence Ministry told the Bombay High Court that it had completed its
operational life.
As a memorabilia, the Jaka family has kept a
metallic Ashok Chakra that was onboard the ship.
Source: the daily
star. 23 November 2014
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