Hope floats for INS Viraat as firm want to turn it into naval museum

A last ditch effort is underway to save INS Viraat, India’s longest-serving warship that has reached Alang ship breaking yard for scrapping and will be permanently beached on September 30.

A Mumbai-based company Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt Limited, has come forward to salvage the symbol of India’s rich maritime heritage. The company is planning to convert the ship into a maritime museum that will be docked in the Zuari river in Goa. The Goa government has come on board for the project and written to the Ministry of Defence in this regard.

An official of the Envitech company said it has reached an understanding with the Shree Ram Group which bought the iconic warship for Rs 38.54 crore in an auction conducted by the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited.

The longest-serving warship in the world, INS Viraat was decommissioned three years ago after over three decades of service. Since then efforts have been on to save it from the fate that INS VIKRANT had met — dismantled in Bombay in 2014.

No corporate house was willing to put in the money for a museum. States like Goa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had shown interest but intentions did not travel far enough to save the ship.

However, Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, at an event to bid adieu to the warship, said the government was willing to spend Rs 400-500 crore on the museum project, but experts warned the ship would not last for more than 10 years.

INS Viraat was originally commissioned by the British Royal Navy as HMS Heremes on November 18, 1959, and saw action during the Falklands War in 1982. In 1986, the Indian Navy brought it and since then it has been its centerpiece, sailing 5,88,287 nautical miles.

This means it has spent seven years in sea, circumnavigating the globe 27 times.