Naval museum to house anti-sub Tupolev 142

Kolkata: A Tupolev 142 anti-submarine aircraft of the Indian Navy, now decommissioned, has reached Kolkata from INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu.

It marks the completion of the first phase of the process for setting up a naval aircraft museum in New Town on the lines of the one at Ramakrishna Beach in Vishakhapatnam.

The giant TU 142 aircraft, which was transported to the city in a dismantled form on Friday, has been kept at a land opposite the New Town police station. On Saturday, Captain Joydeep Chakraborty, the project in charge at INS Netaji Subhas, said, “Most of the components of the aircraft have arrived in the city in 14 trucks. The rest two, on the outskirts now, are reaching soon with other components.”

He added, “The first batch of trucks started the journey on January 27 while the second batch on February 8.”

The aircraft components will now be reassembled to set up the museum which is expected to be thrown open for the public in the middle of this year. The TU 142 aircraft was handed over to the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), a state urban body, on November 15 last year as part of the project.

The Navy said, “In the interim, the preparatory activities at the site at New Town, Kolkata, have commenced. The land at New Town adjacent to the police station has been cleared, flattened and the base on which the aircraft will be erected has been completed. The aircraft reassembly will commence shortly and is likely to be completed by early March.”

It added, “The KMDA has started work on the next phase with identification of an architect to design the layout of the museum.”

The cost for dismantling, transportation of the TU 142 aircraft from Tamil Nadu and assembling it in Kolkata will also be borne by the West Bengal government.

The Navy is also planning to install a decommissioned Sea Harrier fighter aircraft at the same venue.