INS Vikrant to be broken up

Mumbai, Nov 21 (IANS) India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, now decommissioned but which saw action during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, is finally being broken up. The process is expected to be completed within seven-eight months, its owner said here on Friday.

The once-majestic aircraft carrier was bought in an e-auction by Mumbai-based IB Commercials Ltd, said its director and now the ship owner Abdul Karim Jaka.

"A team of around 200 people has been deployed to dismantle and break down the ship after we completed all legal and technical formalities and secured all requisite clearances from the agencies concerned," Jaka told IANS from the breaking yard at Powder Bunder in south-east Mumbai.