The incoming monsoons have become a cause for the Navy’s desperation to turn India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant into scrap.
With the apex court having stayed Centre’s plans to scrap the 70-year-old ship on May 5, the Government moved an application in Supreme Court on Thursday seeking modification to remove the giant vessel docked at Mumbai Harbour to a safer location.In its application, the Defence Ministry said that the onslaught of monsoons coupled with the prediction of a high tide could cause the vessel to “sink”. This would not only add to the financial burden but also affect the safety of other ships in the dock.
The Vacation Bench of Justices BS Chauhan and AK Sikri, which had on Tuesday, refused to interfere, decided to consider the limited question of removal of the ship on Friday. It directed Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sidharth luthra to supply a copy of the application to the petitioner, Kiran Paigankar, at whose instance the SC had ordered “status quo” on May 5. Kiran’s petition has demanded Vikrant to be maintained as a maritime museum.
luthra informed the court, “The hulk of the ship is about to disintegrate. If this happens, Mumbai Harbour will be unusable.” It was for this purpose that while auctioning the warship for scrapping,the company, which received the contract, had agreed to remove the ship to Darukhana, almost five nautical miles from the Harbour.He said, “Any delay in completing the process of disposal/removal of the ship can lead to irreparable damage to other ships in vicinity also and affect the ship’s own safety due to adverse weather in view of impending monsson.”
Incidentally, the scrapping company — IB Commercial Private ltd — was given time till Sunday to remove the ship from its current location. The ship is currently secured at Cruiser Wharf inside the Naval Dockyard. According to the application filed by the Centre, “The berth currently occupied by INS Vikrant can, when vacated, take at least five to six large ships in its place.” Moreover, the Navy recently inducted a new aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya which has no berthing space.
“The approximate life of an aircraft carrier is 25 to 30 years,” said the application, which pointed out that the Navy, despite having decommissioned the ship on January 31, 1997, continues to incur an expenditure of over Rs2.5 crore annually to maintain it. The ship has undergone three essential repairs and “dry dockings” at a cost of Rs22 crore in the years 2000, 2004 and 2010-11. “In the absence of watertight integrity between compartments, sections, decks and bulkheads and absence of dewatering equipment, any damage to shell would result in possible sinking of the ship. This is a serious safety related risk,” the application stated.