While the decommissioned aircraft carrier Viraat is awaiting dismantling at a ship scrapping yard at Alang in Gujarat, a Trust has been set up in the UK to save the carrier from such a cruel fate.
According to reports, the Hermes Viraat Heritage Trust has witten to Prime Miniter Narendra Modi as well as to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson requesting that the aircraft carrier be saved from being scrapped.
The Trust has urged the Indian government to let it convert Viraat into a maritime museum off the coast of Goa. Interestingly, a former member of the European Parliament David Campbell Bannerman is heading the Trust.
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According to a report by NDTV, the members of the Trust have even requested the Indian government to allow the 23,900 ton warship to be towed back to the United Kingdom where a maritime museum can be set up.
The carrier, also known as ‘Grand Old Lady’, was developed during World War II and was commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1959 as HMS Hermes. After serving for 27 years, it was sold to India and was named INS Viraat. INS Viraat remained as the flagship warship for the Indian Navy for 30 years and was finally decommissioned on March 6, 2017.
