"MbPT may lead Vikrant to scrapyard"

March 27: The historic aircraft carrier Vikrant may have to drop anchor in the scrapyard by the year-end if the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) ref...

March 27: The historic aircraft carrier Vikrant may have to drop anchor in the scrapyard by the year-end if the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) refuses the Indian Navy permission to park the ship, to be converted into a maritime museum, near the Gateway of India. At a press conference at the naval dockyard today, outgoing Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command, Vice-Admiral Avnish Rai Tandon, squarely blamed the MbPT for stonewalling the project.

The plan envisaged by the Indian Navy sees its historic aircraft carrier permanently berthed near the Gateway of India, serving as a museum, commuter port and helipad. “The only problem is that the MbPT does not wish to give up the seafront,” Vice-Admiral Tandon said. The Jamshetji Bunder site near the Gateway of India, selected as the venue by the Navy, belongs to the port trust. However, the latter has expressed reservations as the plan may damage the harbour. The C-in-C, who retires on March 31, said the Vikrant’s flight deck could be used as ahelipad with the navy’s `INS Kunjali’ heli-base controlling air traffic.

“If this (the proposal) doesn’t come through in the next nine months, we may have to think of sending the ship to Darukhana or Alang scrapyards,” the C-in-C said. He added that the navy could not continue to keep the decommissioned ship in its berth.

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Admiral Tandon said a port trust committee had asked the Navy to park the Vikrant on the city’s western seafront. He said this is not possible since the western coast is exposed to the elements and is unapproachable by road. There are enough people to fund the project if it is established near the Radio Club, which is well connected by roads, he said. Tandon said he had written to Chief Minister Manohar Joshi to preserve the Vikrant in the interests of the state since the unique project would be a joint effort involving the Navy, the Maharashtra government, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and private agencies.

A senior port trust official said that the Vikrant proposal isunder consideration by a committee of MbPT trustees which is expected to submit a report on the project’s cost benefits to the state government. “The project is not as simple as it sounds since a lot of issues like rock blasting are involved,” said a senior port trust official adding that the fallout of the project on the harbour is also being studied.

The Navy drew up plans to convert its most historic warship into a maritime museum after she was decommissioned on January 31 last year, after 36 years of service. Estimated to cost around Rs 70 crore, the project sees the Vikrant being towed to the Jamshetji Bunder site and then permanently concreted on to the sea bed.

However, the MbPT has asked the Navy to look for alternative sites like the seafront in Navi Mumbai, Middle Ground island or the west coast. But the Navy found these locations unsuitable.

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