Mumbai: The Indian Navy handed over INS Guldar, a Landing Ship Tank (Medium), to Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation Limited (MTDC) on Thursday, to be converted into an underwater museum and artificial reef. This is the first initiative of its kind in India to use a decommissioned ship of the Indian Navy for such purpose.
The ship was handed over to MTDC at Karwar on an ‘as is where is’ basis. The MTDC has taken the ship under their charge to convert her into an underwater museum and artificial reef.
The conversion will be undertaken by MTDC and will involve complete cleaning of the ship to remove any potential pollutants/ hazardous materials, ensuring environmental clearances as per guidelines for marine conservation, obtaining various NOCs, and scuttling the ship at Sindhudurg, ensuring all safety precautions.
The ship was built at Gdynia Shipyard, Poland, and was commissioned into the Indian Navy on Dec 30, 1985. The ship was part of the Eastern Naval Command from 1985 to 1995 before being repositioned at Andaman and Nicobar Command, where she served till her decommissioning on Jan 12, 2024. She sailed for over 3,900 days and successfully conducted over 490 beaching operations to land Army troops ashore.