KOCHI: The commissioning of India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Cochin Shipyard on Friday proved to be a get-together of sorts for the alumni of the Department of Ship Technology (DoST) at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat).
Prof V Sivaprasad, senior faculty of DoST, who was invited to the function, said it was a proud moment for him personally after seeing so many of his students at the Cochin Shipyard, most of whom were also part of the prestigious INS Vikrant project.
“My heart was filled with happiness after seeing so many of my former students from the Department of Ship Technology at the Cochin Shipyard during the INS Vikrant commissioning,” he said. Cochin Shipyard’s Chairman and Managing Director Madhu S Nair, who led from the front during the building and transferring of the Rs 20,000 crore aircraft carrier, is also a former student of Cusat’s ship technology department.
“Some of the slokas recited by the Prime Minister pleasantly surprised me,” he said. The Prime Minister recited the portion from Yukti Kalpataru, the famous treatise in Sanskrit on shipbuilding written and compiled in the 12th Century by king Bhoja of Dhara of the Paramara dynasty, said Sivaprasad.
“What I usually teach ‘out of syllabus’ for B-Tech Naval Architecture students in the 7th semester was mentioned by Modiji in his chant during INS Vikrant commissioning speech,” he said.