Paradip: The coast guard ship Vajra, which was withdrawn from service recently, will be converted into a museum.
The heritage ship will be berthed strategically at Paradip to make it a major tourist attraction, said officials of the port.
The Indian Coast Guard ship Vajra, which had rendered three decades of meritorious service in maritime security, was decommissioned on February 20 with full military honours.
The ship had served the nation for 30 years. After the ship was withdrawn from service, Paradip Port Trust had evinced interest in taking possession of the ship or its conversion into a maritime museum.
The port trust wrote to the director general of coast guard to convert the ship into a museum. Things began to move after the coast guard gave its nod to the proposal. The de-commissioned ship will be officially handed over to the port trust shortly. Technical formalities are being worked out before the port trust takes possession of it, said coast guard officials.
The decommissioned ships are usually dispatched to the scrap yard in Gujarat. However, the decision to hand over Vajra was taken as the port trust had the expertise to preserve it, said Coast Guard sources.
Built at Mumbai's Mazagon Dock, the decommissioned ship had numerous operational achievements to its credit, including interception of foreign fishing vessels. It had also been successfully pressed into service in search and rescue, anti-poaching and security patrols. The ship during its several missions had saved 28 sea-going fishermen, who were stranded in the middle of the sea.
Official caught
The executive engineer of the public health engineering organisation of Jharsuguda Dilip Kumar Shaw was arrested on Saturday by the vigilance sleuth while he was accepting bribe from a civil contractor to clear his bills.
Shaw demanded Rs 13,000 from Giridhari Sahu, a civil contractor who had executed six civil construction works under the division, to clear his total bill of Rs 13,19,242 and subsequently two bills of Rs 8 lakh.
The sleuths arrested Shaw and recovered the marked notes from his pocket.
