IMS Vikrant sold as scrap

The country’s first warship, INS Vikrant, which served the nation in a couple of international wars, will end up as scrap.
Last month, the Indian Navy sold it to the highest bidder, a ship breaking company in the city called IB Commercial, for Rs 63 crore, way over its reserve price of Rs 3 crore.
 The plan is to pull Vikrant down part by wellserved part and sell it as lucrative scrap.
The ship’s last day at berth off the Mumbai city coast is expected to be May 20. A public interest litigant, Kiran Paingankar, who fought and lost this January in the Bombay high court against the auction, is likely to file a challenge in the Supreme Court later this month.
The iconic aircraft carrier was built in England well before World War II ended. The Indian Navy bought it in 1957.
The ship was decommissioned by the navy in 1997. About a decade after Vikrant was decommissioned, it turned into a maritime museum berthed in the city harbour.
Now, it is learnt that the winning bidders are expected to move the ship, a part of national and war history, out of the harbour within a month.
The Centre and the navy had been saying that the museum project had run out of steam financially. They said in the HC that more money was being spent on repairs than was being earned.
The defence ministry had said in the high court the sale was important to prevent any disaster and was in the nation’s interest. The hull of the ship was over 70 years old and very weak, unsafe for even cadets to cross.
A bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha accepted the defence ministry stand that the ship was completely unsafe and unfit for preservation as a museum. The Centre said that it was not feasible to retain the ship as a permanent museum and the decision to scrap it was based on government policy.
Additional solicitor general Kevic Setalvad said Vikrant had lived out its “life” and several efforts had been made to preserve it but without success.
It was argued in the HC that the museum project estimate of Rs.500 crore was from 2010 and costs would now have risen.
Defence personnel, too, said the decision to scrap Vikrant was based on logic.
“It is a sad day but it was an inevitable thing to do,” an officer said. “A normal ship lasts 35 years, but Vikrant has been around 70 years. And them it has been 17 years even from the date of decommissioning of the old warship.”

OLD LADY’S GRAND JOURNEY
IMS Vikrant, formerly the British Royal Navy ship HMS Hercules, was built in 1943 and joined the Indian fleet on Nov 3, 1961
The ship was bought in 1957, but for four years had to undergo refitting before being commissioned
It was the country's only aircraft carrier for over 20 yrs
It is made of 15,000 tonnes of steel
By the early 1990s Vikrant was effectively out of service because of its poor condition
Often referred as the Old Lady of the Indian Navy, Vikrant was decommissioned on January 31, 1997
The 20,000-tonne aircraft carrier played a major role in 1962's Goa liberation, 1965's Kutch operations and the 1971 Indo-Pak war that led to the liberation of Bangladesh
It is the only surviving World War II majestic class warship still in existence
In 1961, it was the only aircraft carrier east of Suez