World’s oldest aircraft carrier – INS Viraat – is set to be decommissioned on Monday, after circumnavigating the globe for almost 57 years.
The ceremony will be held at the Mumbai dockyard and is expected to be attended by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba – who was once the executive officer of the ship in 1998 – along with some officers and men from India and United Kingdom who served with her.
Before being commissioned to Indian Navy in 1987, the ship, built in 1943, served the Royal British Navy for 27 years.
#INSViraat Have no words to say....A huge 'Thank You' @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/PRw6cB99Th
— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) March 6, 2017
Though the future of the Guinness Record holder warship is still undecided, Lanba told NDTV that if there are no buyers in the next four months, the ship will be broken up and sold for scrap.
The Andhra Pradesh government has formally evinced interest in making the INS Viraat a museum, though similar plans for the erstwhile Vikrant had failed.
Under the Indian flag, INS Viraat clocked more than 22,622 flying hours by various aircraft, spent around 2,252 days at sea sailing 10,94,215 km, and since her inception her boiler was running for 80,715 hours.
She played a major role in the Operation Jupiter in 1989 in Sri Lankan Peace Keeping operations, Operation Parakram in 2001-2002 when India and Pakistan were in a stand-off post-terror strikes on Indian Parliament, among others.
(With inputs from IANS.)