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After six decades of service, INS Viraat formally decommissioned in Mumbai

The Navy is considering a proposal to convert the now-retired ship into a sunken diving site and marine museum at sea in case this idea falls through."

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She may have been decommissioned after almost six decades of service, but there is no sense of closure about the fate of aircraft carrier INS Viraat. On Monday, INS Viraat, the Indian Navy's second aircraft carrier and the longest-serving warship in the world, was formally decommissioned in a ceremony in Mumbai. The Ministry of Defence is negotiating with Andhra Pradesh, which has shown interest in using the ship as a museum and luxury hotel.

However, the Indian Navy is considering a proposal to convert the now-retired ship into a sunken diving site and marine museum at sea in case this idea falls through."That was a proposal which came to me. If we don't have a proposal from any other state, we will examine this proposal of making it into a dive site and a marine museum at sea," said Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of Naval staff.

INS Viraat--the second Centaur-class aircraft carrier in service--has spent 27 years in the Royal Navy and 30 years in the Indian Navy after being commissioned on May 12, 1987. Monday's ceremony was attended by serving and retired Indian Navy officers and the Royal Navy's First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Philip Jones and an around 20-strong contingent of the Royal Navy, including retired personnel who had served on board the ship were also in attendance.

The Indian Navy uses decommissioned ships for purposes like training, targets for practice, exhibits and some are even sold as scrap. "We had offered Viraat to all coastal states as a maritime museum. We got a reply only from the state of Andhra Pradesh and that proposal is being examined," said Lanba, adding that the Ministry of Defence had proposed to gift the ship to coastal states for conversion to a museum without any funding from the Centre.

The Navy chief said while the "Navy would like to see it as a maritime museum, it is not the task of the Navy to convert it into a maritime museum." The Indian Navy's indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant is being built at the Cochin Shipyard and may be inducted between 2018 and 2019, said Lanba. The Indian Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant was decommissioned in 1997 and its conversion to a full-time museum ship fell through due to reasons like funding. The Majestic-class aircraft carrier, which was used by both, the Royal and Indian Navies, was scrapped in 2014.

Old timers remember the ship

For former Royal Navy personnel who attended the decommissioning, the visit to INS Viraat was a trip down memory lane. "I was 17 when I joined the Navy," said former Naval airman Andy Trish, adding that he served on board the ship at the age of 18 during the Falkland war and even celebrated his next birthday on it.

"I spent two days on board the ship and even slept in my old bed," he said.  Mark Smith, a former Captain Steward, said he was 21 years old when the UK went to war with Argentina over the Falkland islands. "We lost some lives on our side and some on the Argentinean side but this changed me as a man," he said, adding that friendships had been forged on board the ship.

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