New Delhi: Indian Navy’s battleship INS Khukri, lead ship of the Indian Navy’s Khukri class corvettes and an indigenous surface-to-surface missile fitted vessel that had the distinction of being part of both, the Western and Eastern Fleets, is scheduled to be handed over to the Diu Administration on January 26.
The ship built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, was commissioned on August 23, 1989 in Mumbai by then Defence Minister K.C. Pant, and Mrs Sudha Mulla, wife of late Capt Mahendra Nath Mulla, MVC.
After more than 32 glorious years of service to the nation and having participated in all forms of naval operations, the ship was decommissioned in a solemn ceremony on December 23, 2021 when the national flag, naval ensign and decommissioning pennant were lowered at sunset in the presence of Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command.
A ship never dies, it is said. She is re-born in a new avatar. In fact, the decommissioned vessel is the second ship of the Navy to carry the name INS Khukri, the first having been lost during the 1971 Indo-Pak War off the coast of Diu. The valiant crew of that ship, led by late Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla (MVC), has been immortalized in the Khukri Memorial at Diu where a scaled-down model of their old ship is displayed in solemn splendour.
As part of developing and revitalising the Khukri Memorial, the Diu Administration had approached the Ministry of Defence in 2019 for gifting to it, for public display, a decommissioned naval vessel. As it turned out, it was time for the second Khukri to be paid off. This is the vessel that will be handed over officially to the Diu Administration. The ship commenced her last journey under tow by Indian Navy ships from Visakhapatnam and arrived at Diu on January 14.
