India’s Only Aircraft Carrier INS Vikramaditya Completes Rs 705-Crore Refit

After undergoing a five-month refit at a cost of ₹705 crore at the Cochin Shipyard, India’s only aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya is set to sail from the Kochi port on 23 October, reports The Hindu.

“The short refit is done in such a way as to pave way for longer routine maintenance work scheduled for 2020-2021 and ensure that the carrier is not required to be dry-docked for the next five-six years,” The Hindu quoted Captain Puruvir Das, commanding officer of Vikramaditya, as saying.

“The carrier’s hull got treated and painted. Then we had some work on the shafts – the carrier has four of them. In floating condition, a diver goes down and measures the health of the shafts with some gauges, but they are fully checked when dry-docked. We had found during routine check-ups that some temperature readings of the shafts were going high, so we had to dry-dock to check the condition of the bearings. That’s been done now,” Captain Das said.

Reports also suggest that almost 16 of the 25 shaft bearings were changed as part of the refit. Indian Navy is also reported to be probing various options for berthing the vessel for its next major maintenance – the normal refit that would come around 2020-21.