We Want It, Says Chandrababu Naidu About INS Viraat

INS Viraat - perhaps the oldest serving warship today and India's second aircraft carrier in the fleet - may live on as a museum after it is decommissioned next year.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandababu Naidu has already proposed to keep the "floating museum" at the Kakinada Port, just 170 km from the Submarine Museum of Vishakhapatnam.

The Navy hopes the INS Viraat will prove luckier than its predecessor INS Vikrant, India's first aircraft carrier which had to be sent to the scrap yard after efforts to preserve it failed. The ship had been decommissioned in 1997.

"INS Vikrant suffered for 18 years with no support from the state and ultimately had to be scrapped, we want to avoid a similar situation," said a senior officer in the Navy.

So despite the enthusiasm of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, the ship will be given to the state which has the best plan to utilise it, said sources in the Navy. The Union Defence Ministry is already writing to all the coastal states, giving them an option to preserve the aircraft carrier as a museum.

"The best plan would include details about its maintenance and also how the state proposes make sure that the museum is available to the maximum number of people," the officer said. "The Ministry will get a guarantee from the state government on the upkeep and we are willing to provide all help to maintain it."

The Submarine Museum in Visakhapatnam had been up and running since 2002. The INS Kurusura was a Soviet built submarine which was hauled up from the sea with intact and positioned on a concrete foundation after its decommission in 2001. The museum had been inaugurated by Mr Naidu.

Now Tamil Nadu is in the process of putting one up a similar one in Chennai.