No takers for INS Vikrant's museum plan

MUMBAI: The much-awaited bidding on Tuesday for the proposed Rs 450-crore conversion of the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant into a maritime museum failed, as none of the five industrial players turned up. The government had announced a proposal to convert the carrier into a museum on the very day she was decommissioned — on January 31, 1997.

The project has been delayed by more than 10 years. Manukumar Srivastava, secretary, urban development and special projects said, "Five bidders — HCC Infrastructure, Srei Infrastructure, Kalpataru Power, Dhoot Developers and Zoom Developers — were asked to submit financial bids after they qualified in the technical bids round, but no one turned up. We will have to go for re-bidding again."