The Andhra Pradesh government is finalising the roadmap for executing the ambitious INS Viraat museum project at Bheemunipatnam. An official team from Vijayawada headed by Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya will soon be visiting Delhi to follow up the Viraat project and other pending tourism projects with the Central government.
Speaking to The Hindu here on Saturday, Ms. Akhila Priya said that the land for the project had already been identified at Bheemunipatnam and a consultant was finalised for the Detailed Project Report (DPR). “We are hopeful that the project will take off soon,” she said.
It was first reported in these columns that two consultants bid for the tender and submitted their presentations for the Viraat project to the AP tourism officials recently. The State government has been pursuing with the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy to hand over the decommissioned 24,000-tonne world’s oldest aircraft carrier for converting into a floating hotel.Speaking about the upcoming TU-142 aircraft museum project, the Minister said that the Tourism Department had allocated ₹10 crore that would be given to Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority towards setting up the museum. The project will come up in an acre land near Andhra University convention centre. The aircraft museum will be placed beside Kursura Submarine Museum with the theme ‘the hunter and the hunted’.
The project will also have a sound and light show. A long range maritime patrol aircraft, which specialises in detecting and destroying submarines, the TU -142 will need to be cut into about 30 pieces, dismantled and assembled again at the site. The contract for dismantling, transportation and assembling has already been given to a private firm through a tender and the work is in progress.
