The Navy will provide its decommissioned submarine INS Vagli for the maritime heritage museum to be set up at the Marina Beach, Vice-Admiral Anil Chopra, flag officer commander-in-chief, Eastern Naval Command, said here on Saturday. The submarine, decommissioned after 36 years of service, is currently docked at the naval base in Visakhapatnam.
Speaking after the Naval Symphonic Band concert at the Madras University, which was attended by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and Governor K Rosaiah, the vice admiral said the Navy’s reconnaissance aircraft, P-8i, would be stationed at INS Rajali at Arakkonam as part of the expansion of the Eastern command.
Earlier in the day, delivering a talk on ‘Navies and Nations’, Chopra said the presence of Pakistani Navy in the Persian Gulf might increase with the Chinese developing the Gwadar deep water port in Balochistan.
“With the development of Gwadar port, Pakistan will have more access to the Persian Gulf. And to that extent, you could say that the footprint of the Pakistani Navy could increase in the Persian Gulf,” he said. Chopra also said that the Pakistani Navy had maintained very sustained force levels for the last 20-30 years and modernised its technology.
Speaking to reporters later, Chopra said the Navy was already working on long-term projections and was thinking beyond refurbished Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, while adding that it had the potential to become a super power.
Chopra also highlighted the rise of China’s navy in its quest for global power and termed its relations with the Indian Navy as “good”.