‘Many, like me, who worked to make the museum a reality’

Former FOC-in-C of ENC Vice Admiral (Retd.) Vinod Pasricha felicitated on his selection for Individual Achievement Award by World Ship Trust. He recalled the efforts of Commander Randhawa and Commander Kondal Rao of INS Veerabahu, Deepak Sahu of SMU and lieutenants Debashish Pal, Amritraj, and Jagadish Babu, and former head of National Ship Design and Research Centre.

“I feel extremely honoured for having been selected for the Individual Achievement Award by the World Ship Trust of the U.K. for establishment of South East Asia’s first submarine museum — INS Kursura — here, but there are many who have worked hard for making it a reality and I believe the award should have been given to them all,” former Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral (Retd.) Vinod Pasricha has said.

Speaking at the felicitation organised by the Eastern Naval Command and the World Ship Trust at the decommissioned INS Kursura on the Beach Road on Wednesday, he lauded the efforts of persons who were actively involved in the Herculean task of making the submarine walk on land and convert it into a museum.

He recalled the efforts of Commander Randhawa and Commander Kondal Rao of INS Veerabahu, Deepak Sahu of SMU and lieutenants Debashish Pal, Amritraj, and Jagadish Babu, and former head of National Ship Design and Research Centre.

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He specially thanked former professor of Andhra University Prasad Reddy for helping fight a PIL filed by a litigant, who had tried to sabotage the proposal by raising a bogey of threat to nesting of Olive Ridley turtles and moving the High Court. The litigant found his arguments weakening and tried subterfuge by trying to plant some turtle eggs on the site, which was caught on camera by alert officials, and he was handed over to the police, the former ENC chief recalled.

This is by far the best submarine museum in the world and it has not been modified, except for removal of airtight hatches to enable better movement of tourists.

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command, Vice Admiral Satish Soni, handed over the award to Vice Admiral (Retd.) Vinod Pasricha. President of Indian Maritime Foundation and Indian representative of World Ship Trust Commodore (Retd.) Rajan Vir read out the felicitation letter.

VUDA Vice-Chairman M.V. Satyanarayana, a host of flag officers, and other officers of the ENC were present.