The chairman of a scrapping company on Tuesday announced that INS Viraat, the Indian Navy's second aircraft carrier, which was decommissioned in 2017, will be towed to a ship-breaking yard next month.
The Metal Scrap Corporation Limited conducted an auction to sell the Viraat last month; the vessel was purchased by Shree Ram Group for Rs 38.54 crore.
Mukesh Patel, chairman of Shree Ram group, told PTI the Viraat will likely be towed from the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai to the ship-breaking yard at Alang, Gujarat, next month. “We have made the entire payment and received delivery order from the government. So, depending on the monsoon condition, it will be towed to Alang from the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai where it is stationed now, most likely by mid or end of September after receiving the required permission from the Directorate General of Shipping," Patel said.
While towing of the ship would take around three days, the scrapping process would take around nine to 12 months, Patel said.
Patel told AFP about possible use of the ship's metal. "We have been approached by two motorcycle makers for using the steel from the warship to build bikes... But nothing has been finalised yet," he said.
This would make the Viraat's fate similar to that of the INS Vikrant, the country's first aircraft carrier.
The INS Vikrant, which was decommissioned in 1997, was the first aircraft carrier in Asia after the Second World War and had played a key role in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Metal from the Vikrant, which was scrapped in 2014, was used by the Bajaj group. In 2016, Bajaj unveiled the Bajaj V motorcycle in honour of the Vikrant.
There were proposals to preserve the Vikrant and Viraat, including making the ships maritime museums. The Vikrant, in fact, served as a museum briefly. In 2018, the Maharashtra government announced it could spend approximately Rs 852 crore to convert the Viraat into a maritime museum, complete with a hotel and adventure sports facilities. The plan involved docking the vessel off the coast of Sindhudurg district. The Andhra Pradesh government had also expressed interest in similar proposals to preserve the Viraat as a heritage vessel in Vizag and even arrived at an expenditure estimate of approximately Rs 300 crore. However, neither proposal went far.
Both the Vikrant and Viraat were purchased from the UK and both ships were originally built with the aim of serving in the Second World War. The Viraat was purchased from the UK at a cost of $65 million and joined the Indian Navy in 1987. The Viraat carried Sea Harrier fighter jets.
The Viraat had seen combat in the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina as the HMS Hermes of the Royal Navy. The conflict earned iconic status for the HMS Hermes in the UK. Veterans in the UK had attempted to save the Viraat from scrapping and announced plans to buy the vessel and tow it to the UK last year.