Over a month after
decommissioned Indian Naval Ship (INS) Vikrant was sold, it was today moved out
of the Naval dock and taken to a ship breaking yard in south Mumbai.
"The ship started
from the naval dock at 9.40 AM and reached the yard at around 2.30 PM,"
said a source in the Western Naval Command.
The ship will not be
broken for now as a petition seeking that it should be converted into a museum
is pending in the Supreme Court, the source said.
"We wanted the ship
shifted before the monsoon," he said, adding the vessel could face threat
of sinking if moved after the onset of monsoon.
Last month, IB
Commercial Pvt Ltd had won the bid for Rs 60 crore to scrap the decommissioned
aircraft carrier, which played an important role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
Sources in the defence
also said that artefacts of the ship have been removed.
"More than 60 per
cent of the artefacts have been moved to the Maritime History Society in Mumbai
while rest have been shifted to Naval Aviation Museum in Goa," said the
source, adding that smaller relics will be shifted to various museums and
motivational centres.
Earlier, the Maharashtra
government had expressed its inability to maintain Vikrant,
Indian Navy's first
aircraft carrier which was commissioned in 1961. It was decommissioned in
January 1997.
In January 2014, during
the hearing of a PIL which opposed the plan to scrap the ship, the Union
Ministry of Defence told the Bombay High Court that it had completed its
operational life.
The Maharashtra
government had stated that to preserve it as a museum would not be financially
viable.
The High Court
subsequently dismissed the PIL. Now, the petition is pending in the Supreme
Court.
The Majestic-class
aircraft carrier, purchased from Britain in 1957, played a key role in
enforcing the Naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of
1971.
Source:
outlook india. 28 May 2014
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