Naval experts say decommissioned submarine won’t pose a safety threat once it is converted into museum

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Naval experts have ruled out any threat to visitors from decommissioned Indian Navy submarine INS Vagli once it is converted into museum.

The death of two workers due to asphyxiation after they had gone inside the submarine, the oldest operational submarine of the Indian Navy that was decommissioned at Visakhapatnam on December 2010, to undertake maintenance work sparked concern over the viability of it being converted into museum.

But Commodore Amar K Mahadevan, Naval Officer-in-Charge of Tamil Nadu and National Maritime Foundation regional director and Commodore (retd) S Shekhar, Regional Director of NMF, Chennai Chapter said that the submarine is safe for visitors as it will have open spaces and ventilation when it is being converted into museum.

Commodore Mahadevan said that the three workers, who had gone to undertake maintenance work, got trapped in a constricted space. “The whole area was under water for a long time. It was rusty and that could have resulted in loss of oxygen,” Mahadevan said.

Shekhar says that Vagli is a Vela class submarine and is similar to the INS Kursura S20 which was decommissioned and converted to a museum. “It has been successful for the last seven years. So I don’t think it will have any issue,” he said.

Interestingly, on Wednesday a steering committee metting of Maritime Heritage Museum will also discuss the issue besides shifting the submarine to 30 acres of land abutting the beach near the UNESCO declared World Heritage site, “Shore Temple”, said Shekhar. He said that NMF is offering its technical expertise to the state government in this regard. He said some more portion in the submarine has to be cleared so that there is no problem with ventilation.

Top state government officials could not be contacted in this regard.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the workers identified as Bhavani Shankar and Mahendran have been sent to their respective homes. The bodies were fished out by Indian Navy as well as Central Industrial Security force besides divers from Nirikshan, a private firm and port fire service. Another worker Jayakumar is recuperating at Government general hospital, a Chennai port official said.