The decision which was announced after a meeting of the board of trustees comes sixteen days before the expiry of the Indian Navy's deadline for sending its historic ship to the scrapyard.

Site clearance from the MbPT was the last hurdle in the conversion of the Vikrant into Asia's first ever floating museum. The issue was at the centrestage in the fortnightly meeting of the trustees.

At around 3 pm, a report of the special sub-committee headed by Deputy chairman Rajiv Sinha was presented before the board. The report recommended two sites for grouting the ship: the Jamshedji Bunder site near Radio Club and the Oyster Rock further down.

The two senior trustees of the port Dr Shanti Patel and S R Kulkarni placed their dissent on record. The sub-committee report was earlier placed before the trustees on July 26 but deferred at the request of Kulkarni.

Today, the issue ragedfor over three hours before the decision was announced at around 6.30 pm. In its earlier stand-off with the state government and the navy, the MbPT had insisted that the state government should fund a study to be conducted by an independent consultant only after which the port would give the two sites. The MbPT has now asked the state to conduct a techno-economic feasibility study of the project taking into account all the details including the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), dredging and traffic congestion.

The sites will be leased by the port trust only after it had been cleared during the feasibility study. Two sites had been given since, ``It's a question of comparison, there are chances that at least one site will fit the bill,'' Sinha said.

However, the port trust will have to reckon with continued opposition from the two powerful trade union leaders. ``The sub-committee has exceeded its brief by suggesting two sites. We will have to see the implication of what the board has decided in thecontext of the Major Port Trusts Act,'' said S R Kulkarni. ``We are happy that the port trust has finally agreed to the site, and we hope that there will be no more objections,'' a visibly relieved Trade and Commerce Minister Pramod Navalkar said adding that he would call a meeting of all officials concerned with the proposed project on Wednesday. What next? ``Today is a very happy day for us,'' a senior naval official said. But the champagne is not exactly flowing at the Western Naval Command in Mumbai. The official stated that the navy will have to immediately dry dock the fast corroding ship and service its hull. This will cost an estimated Rs five crore and it is not clear who will foot the bill for the two-month long refit in the MbPT dry dock.

save the Vikrant

Today, the first step towards preserving the Vikrant and turning it into a museum for posterity was taken. A result, we'd like to believe, of our campaign - with your full support.

An issue which was stuck at the clearance stage hasleapt past. Now we await the beginnings of what will be a one-of-its-kind museum this side of the Suez by 2000 AD. The first priority now is to immediately dry dock the ship and attend to its deteriorating hull.