INS Vikrant, the iconic warship used in the 1971 War, is now in the scrap-yard despite public demands to convert it into a maritime museum. The Hindu found that two private companies had bid for the job but the Navy shot them down for security reasons after the firms’ precondition that the aircraft carrier will be used as a commercial airstrip.
In 2011, two companies — Ackruti City Ltd. (now called Hubtown Ltd.) and the Sahara Group’s Aamby Valley City Ltd. — bid for the project at a cost of around Rs.600 crore. However, they laid down a precondition that Vikrant would also be used as an airstrip to fly their private charter planes.
Sources told The Hindu that the Navy turned down the proposal, saying no private airstrip could operate in the Defence Zone.
“We were stunned with the precondition that was laid down by the companies. No private plane can fly in our zone. The [Maharashtra] government was asked to develop it without allowing the warship to be turned into an airstrip,” a top Navy source told The Hindu .
In 1997, the indigenous aircraft carrier was decommissioned by the Navy. In 2002, the Defence Ministry approached the Maharashtra government with a request to have the warship converted into a museum. In April 2002, global tenders were floated but with just one bidder opting for the project, the deal was scrapped.
When the project was revived in 2009, the Maharashtra Urban Infrastructure Development Company (MUINFRA) was asked to oversee the tenders. The body claimed it had kept the Ministry informed about the precondition in the tenders. However, Navy sources say the government mooted the tender without consulting them.
Once the idea of a private airstrip was turned down, the bidders withdrew. “Since commercial flying operations from Vikrant was central to the concept plan of both the bidders, they withdrew from the process,” the MUINFRA said in its communication to the Ministry.
When contacted, Sahara Group said that it had proposed to convert Vikrant into a 50,000 square-foot maritime museum & hotel that offered chopper rides along the Gateway of India. “Tender specifications stipulated chopper joyrides from the deck which was subsequently denied by the Naval Command citing security reasons,” Abhijit Sarkar, head-Corporate Communications, Sahara India Pariwar, told The Hindu . The other bidder, Hubtown Ltd., refused to comment.
