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Asia Minute: India’s Aircraft Carrier Hotel

Wikipedia Commons
Wikipedia Commons

Navies from the United States to Australia are planning to order and develop new submarines and ships. If you’ve ever wondered about what happens to the old ones, there’s a development on that front from India. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

The world’s longest-serving aircraft carrier is heading for retirement.  India’s INS Viraat is on its last voyage making port calls around India on its way to Mumbai.  The carrier started life in 1959 as a British ship---the HMS Hermes, and saw action in the Falklands War in 1982 before being transferred to the Indian Navy five years later.  What comes next has been a matter of some debate.

Last summer, local papers reported it was going to become a museum.  But the Tribune newspaper now reports it will be transformed into a luxury hotel.  India’s first aircraft carrier experienced a different sort of transformation when it was scrapped a couple of years ago.

Quartz India reports that the motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto has launched a bike that’s made from steel that came from the INS Vikrant.  Bajaj says the model released earlier this month will “preserve a significant piece of Indian military history.”  As for the INS Viraat, the Tribune says the idea is to make the aircraft carrier into a hotel that’s not only a tourist attraction, but also a conference center.  The ship will have 500 rooms and a conference hall that can hold 500 people, and lots of parking spaces for busy executives and their helicopters.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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