Call it lack of coordination between the State and Central governments or a lack of follow-up action on their part, the Tamil Nadu government has ended up paying a sum of about ₹2 lakh every month for a tourism project, which it has decided to abandon.
The State government has decided that the ambitious project conceptualised during Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s regime in 2012 to set up a submarine museum at Mamallapuram on the East Coast Road, would not work out. But it is paying about ₹2 lakh as demurrage to Chennai Port Trust where the decommissioned submarine INS Vagli is lying idle.
“We have decided that it is not feasible to implement the project since the submarine could not be mounted at the site in Mamallapuram. We have already informed the Centre that we want to give back the submarine,” Minister for Tourism Vellamandi N. Natarajan told The Hindu , when asked about the project.
No reply from Centre
He claimed that the communication to the Centre in this regard was sent as early as January 2018 but there has not been any reply. He also confirmed that the State government has been paying demurrage.
When contacted, a spokesperson from the Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: “The issue has been under discussion among all stakeholders. Some clarification has been sought from the State and its response is awaited.” The decommissioned submarine was handed over to Tamil Nadu on April 8, 2013 and it was towed to Mamallapuram. As it could not be mounted it had to be towed to Chennai port.
In September 2013, then Tourism Minister S.P. Shunmuganathan even visited Visakhapatnam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to take a look at the museum that displays decommissioned submarine INS Kursura, which attracts visitors and generates revenue.
As it turns out, all those visits have not served any purpose.
Maritime heritage enthusiast D. Hemachandra Rao said there was expertise available within the country and if a similar project was implemented in Visakhapatnam how could it not be done in Mamallapuram. The man behind INS Kursura museum is a retired Vice- Admiral, who lives in Pune, Mr. Rao pointed out.
