A peek into India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, commissioned INS Vikrant, the first made-in-India aircraft carrier. The ship is 262 metres long and spans through a width of 62 metres. More than 76 per cent of the components and equipments used to build the ship are indigenous.
The warship has about 2,400 compartments with special cabins for female officers and sailors. It is as big as two football fields and almost 18 floors tall. The ship was built at an approximate cost of Rs 20,000 crore.
INS Vikrant has three pantries that are furnished with coffee-vending machines, tables and chairs. There is a well-equipped kitchen with cooking units that can make up to 3,000 rotis per hour. The warship can accomodate as many as 17,00 personnel.
The carrier is well-equipped with a medical complex. It includes a 16-bed hospital, two operation theatres, a physiotherapy clinic, an Intensive Care Unit, an isolation ward and a radiology wing. INS Vikrant’s aviation hangar will carry MiG fighter jets, Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
Designed by Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau (WDB), INS Vikrant is the largest ship to be built in India’s history. It can hit a maximum speed of 28 knots and has an operation range of 7500 Nautical Miles. The ship’s aircraft lifts has the capacity to carry 30 tonnes of aircraft.