India's First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant to be Commissioned Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will commission India's first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant at Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kochi at 9:30 am on Friday.

He will also unveil the new Naval Ensign (Nishaan).

At 262 metres long and 62 metres wide, INS Vikrant is the largest warship to be built in India. It can have 30 aircraft on board, including MiG-29K fighter jets and helicopters. The warship can accommodate a crew of nearly 1,600.

Designed by the Indian Navy's in-house Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, a Public Sector Shipyard under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Vikrant has been built with state-of-the-art automation features and is the largest ship ever built in the maritime history of India.

The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier is named after her illustrious predecessor, India's first aircraft carrier, which had played a vital role in the 1971 war.

It has a large amount of indigenous equipment and machinery, involving major industrial houses in the country as well as over 100 MSMEs. With the commissioning of Vikrant, India will have two operational aircraft carriers, which will bolster the maritime security of the nation.

INS Vikrant consist of 14 decks with 2,300 compartments which can carry around 1,500 sea warriors and to cater to the food requirements, around 10,000 chapatis or rotis are made in the ship's kitchen, which is called the ship's galley.

The 45,000-tonne warship has been built at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore.

The ship is powered by four Gas Turbines totalling 88 MW power and has a maximum speed of 28 Knots. The project has been progressed in three Phases of the contract between MoD and CSL, concluded in May 2007, December 2014 and October 2019 respectively. The ship's keel was laid in Feb 2009, followed by launching in August 2013.

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