PM Modi to commission India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier on Sept 2

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi will commission the first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, at the Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kochi on September 2. The PMO said Modi will be in Karnataka and Kerala on September 1-2 to attend several programmes, including a visit to the birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya at Kalady village near Cochin airport.

He will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of projects worth around Rs 3,800 crores in Mangaluru. The PMO noted that Modi has been a strong proponent of self-reliance, especially in strategic sectors, and the commissioning of INS Vikrant will mark a significant step towards this. It will be the first indigenously designed and built aircraft carrier.

Designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house Warship Design Bureau (WDB) and built by the Cochin Shipyard, a public sector shipyard, 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 aircraft carrier is named after her illustrious predecessor, India’s first, which had played a vital role in the 1971 war, the PMO noted.