Karavali

DK DC draws governments attention to set up INS Viraat aircraft carrier, museum in Mangaluru 

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Mangaluru, July 22: Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim addressed a press meet in this office on Tuesday July 21st and informed that he has requested the government to set up INS Viraat aircraft carrier museum in Mangaluru.

INS Viraat aircraft carrier, is the last British-built ship serving with the Indian Navy. Viraat was completed and commissioned in 1959 as the Royal Navy’s HMS Hermes and was transferred to India in 1987. She was commissioned on 12 May 1987 and is the oldest aircraft carrier in service in the world and is one among the three carriers based in the Indian Ocean region. It has had service life of 56 years, and is to be decommissioned in 2016.

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DC said that he has written a letter to Kaushik Mukherjee, chief secretary to the government to send a proposal to the commanding flag officer, Karnataka naval area and the ministry of defence to set up an aircraft carrier museum in Mangaluru after the decommissioning of INS Viraat in 2016.

The DC in his letter has also mentioned that Mangaluru which has a population of 5 lakhs in the city and more than 20 lakhs in the district, is an ideal location on the western coast. The city is also well connected via rail, road, sea and air network to the rest of the world. The coastline and the banks of the Gurpur and Netravathi rivers encircling Mangaluru city would be an ideal location for the INS Viraat aircraft carrier museum. It can be stationed either on the Bengre sand pit area or on the mainland. Even a floating one can be explored on the Netravati river, the letter states.

The DC has also stated in this letter that the approximate area of a ship is around 10, 000 square metres. The responsibility of maintenance  of the museum may be taken up by the Mangaluru City Corporation or the archaeology department which runs various museums, or the tourism department, said the DC.

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