Recognising the unstinted efforts of Vice Admiral (retd) Vinod Pasricha, who as then Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command, saw INS Kursura beached and converted into a museum World Ship Trust of UK honoured him with ‘Individual Achievement Award’.
Very appropriately he received the award aboard the decommissioned INS Kursura from Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Satish Soni at a simple ceremony here on Wednesday.
The first submarine museum in South East Asia and probably the best in the world became a reality thanks to the efforts of a team of committed Naval officers and others from civil society who worked hard for it, Vice Admiral (retd) Pasricha said in his acceptance speech.
INS Kursura, the ex-Soviet Foxtrot class submarine, was one of the first four submarines acquired by the Indian Navy and commissioned in the late 1960s saw action in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. It served the Indian Navy for 31 years before being beached and decommissioned in 2001. On August 14, 2002 the submarine museum was dedicated to the nation by then Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu and since then has become one of the main tourist attractions of the city.
Visakhapatnam is the home of submariners of the Indian Navy and it is befitting that such an iconic museum is part of the city landscape, Vice Admiral Satish Soni said.
The felicitation speech was read by president Indian Maritime Foundation and representative in India of World Ship Trust of the UK Commodore (retd) Rajan Vir. Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority which maintains the museum was represented by its Vice Chairman M V Satyanarayana. A number of flag officers and serving and retired officers who were part of the task were present.
