The ageing INS Viraat, with its complement of Sea Harrier jump-jets, helicopters and 1,500-crew, has been out of action since early-2008, first at the Mumbai harbour and then at the Cochin Shipyard, as was first reported by TOI.
"INS Viraat has now come out of the dry dock at Kochi after most of the refit work has been completed. The rest of the work at Kochi should finish by August-end," said an officer.
"The warship will then undergo a work-up phase and trials off Mumbai before it becomes fully ready for operations. Though it is 50 years old now, we will be able to run it smoothly for another five years," he added.
Navy has been forced to go in for another refit of the 28,000-tonne old warhorse due to failure of successive governments to undertake long-term defence planning to build military capabilities in tune with the country's geostrategic objectives.
Navy has time and again told the political leadership that India needs three aircraft carriers — one each for the eastern and western seaboards, while the third undergoes repairs — to protect its growing strategic interests stretching from Africa's eastern coast right up to Malacca Strait.
But to no avail. The long-delayed 40,000-tonne indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) being built at the Cochin Shipyard, for instance, will be ready only by 2015 at the earliest.
Then, of course, India will get the refurbished 44,570-tonne aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, undergoing a refit at the Sevmash Shipyard in North Russia, only by 2013 now
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