India is set to get its first underwater museum off the Puducherry coast, giving a boost to tourism in the Union territory.
INS Cuddalore, a minesweeper decommissioned in March after it travelled 30,000 nautical miles in 30 years, will be turned into a museum, according to a Times of India report.
The minesweeper will be deployed in the seabed 7 km off Puducherry at a depth of 26 metres. The 60-metre long and 12-metre wide vessel will be a popular destination for scuba diving and snorkelling. The Navy has agreed to gift the vessel to promote tourism in Puducherry
The divers will be following trails and routes in and out of the ship which will guide them through the underwater experience.
On the sea surface, water buoys will be deployed and the 29-metre tall mast of the ship will be jutting out to allow tourists to take boat rides around it.
The report quoted Probir Banerjee, president of NGO 'PondyCan', as saying that various forms of marine organisms will start coming in on different levels of the ship for the tourists to see.