INS Viraat, the second aircraft carrier in the Indian naval fleet, will be decommissioned today.
It is the second centaur class aircraft carrier in service which has spent 30 years in the Indian Navy and before that 27 years in the Royal Navy of UK.
After the decommissioning of INS Viraat, India will be short of two aircraft carriers as INS Vikrant has already been decommissioned.
Earlier known as HMS Hermes, the ship was in the Royal Navy from 1959.
In the late 80s, Indian Navy purchased it at the cost of USD 65 million and was re-commissioned on May 12, 1987.
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It is the longest serving ship in the history, an official communication from the Western Naval Command said.
According to an NDTV report, Viraat will probably be sunk and converted into a major tourist attraction for divers.
"One proposal could be that we convert her into a marine museum by taking her to one of our major tourist harbors and sink her in the water and make her into a dive site... where some aircraft carriers have been put to rest also... and she would be there as a legacy," Navy Chief Sunil Lanba said to the TV channel.
