Dismantling of INS Vikrant begins

Mumbai: The countrys first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant has begun. Abdul Zaka of ship breaking company IB Commercial (IBC) told that We began the process of breaking INS Vikrant yesterday and it will take at least seven to eight months to complete the job, Around 200 men have been engaged for the job. after the Supreme Court in August rejected the PIL to convert the ship into a maritime museum, IBC obtained mandatory permissions from different government authorities for dismantling it at ship breaking yard at Darukana in south Mumbai. During the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation that opposed the plan to scrap the ship, the Defence Ministry had told the Bombay High Court that it had completed its operational life. Responding to the demand for converting it into a museum, Maharashtra government had expressed its inability to preserve it as a museum, saying it would not be financially viable. The High Court had subsequently dismissed the PIL.aircraft carrier, purchased from Britain in 1957, played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 which culminated in creation of Bangladesh.