VISAKHAPATNAM: INS Khukri, the first of the indigenously built missile corvettes, was decommissioned after 32 years of service at a solemn ceremony held at Visakhapatnam on Friday.
The national flag, naval ensign, and the decommissioning pennant were lowered at sunset in the presence of Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta and some of the serving and former commanding officers of the ship.
The corvette was built by the Mazagon Dock shipbuilders on August 23, 1989 and had the distinction of being part of both the Western and Eastern Fleets.
The ship was commissioned in Mumbai by the then defence minister Krishna Chandra Pant and Sudha Mulla, wife of late Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, MVC with Commander (now Vice Admiral retired) Sanjeev Bhasin as her first Commanding Officer.
During her service in the Indian Navy, the ship was commanded by 28 commanding officers and traversed a distance of over 6,44,897 nautical miles (a measurement used to measure distance in open sea), which is equivalent to navigating around the world 30 times or three times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
The Indian Naval Ship, Khukri was affiliated with the Gorkha Brigade of the Indian Army and Lieutenant General PN Ananthanarayan, president Gorkha Brigade, attended the decommissioning ceremony.