Museum on Decommissioned INS Vikrant
INS Vikrant was approved for disposal as scrap in June 2013 in view of the deteriorating condition of the ship and the inability of Government of Maharashtra to fund the proposal for conversion of the ship into a Maritime Museum.
The ship was decommissioned in January 1997. Government of Maharashtra proposed to convert the ship into a Maritime Museum in November 1998 and Ministry of Defence approved free transfer of the ship to Government of Maharashtra in 1999. Government of India also constituted an Apex Coordination Committee in 2005 to expedite the project of conversion of INS Vikrant into a museum. However after several meetings of the Committee, Government of Maharashtra indicated in December 2012 its inability to stay committed to the project.
Besides representations from Late Shri Gopinath Munde and Dr D Purandeshwari, letters from Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping and Dr Kirit Somaiya, MP, have also been received. Ministry of Culture has been recently requested to examine the feasibility of converting the ship into a museum, subject to judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regarding this matter.
This information was given by Defence Minister Shri Arun Jaitley in a written reply to Dr Kirit Somaiya in Lok Sabha today.
HH/RAJ