New Delhi (NVI): The Supreme Court today stayed further dismantling of the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde issued notice to the Centre and others seeking their responses on a plea filed by a firm which seeks preservation of the ship from being dismantled and for creating it as a maritime museum.
Back in December, the Ministry of Defence had rejected the Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt. Ltd’s proposal to convert the aircraft carrier into a museum.
INS Viraat was beached on September 28 at Alang at a formal ceremony attended by Union Minister of State, Shipping, Mansukh Mandaviya and Navy officers, after numerous attempts to convert the carrier into a museum failed.
The warship, a symbol of India’s rich maritime heritage, was inducted into the Indian Navy in 1987 and decommissioned in 2017.
The world’s longest serving warship is the second aircraft carrier slated to be broken down in India.
Earlier in 2014, INS Vikrant was dismantled in Mumbai. The 70-year-old aircraft carrier, in its earlier avatar, had won the Falklands War against Argentina in 1982 for the Royal British Navy.
-CHK
