'We simply could not believe our eyes to find the entire assembled aircraft to be absolutely perfect'
Kolkata: When the severe cyclonic storm Amphan battered the state last Wednesday , the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) authorities were keeping their fingers crossed apprehending the fate of the Tupolev 142 anti-submarine aircraft that was lying assembled at a land adjacent to New Town police station. KMDA had transported the aircraft to the city in dismantled form on February 14 from INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu with the aim of setting up a naval aircraft museum in New Town on the lines of the one at Ramakrishna Beach in Vishakhapatnam.
"We had finished assembling the various components of the anti submarine aircraft that will be an integral part of the naval museum just before the lockdown started. We visited the site on Sunday morning with our hearts in our mouth . But we simply could not believe our eyes to find the entire assembled aircraft to be absolutely perfect with no damage. Only the boundary wall made of tin has suffered damage," a senior official of KMDA said.
The KMDA team led by DG Supriyo Maity was accompanied by HIDCO Chairman Debashis Sen.
The aircraft was handed over to KMDA on November 15 last year by the Indian Navy. The entire work of assembling was done by the same team of ex armymen who had done the assemblance work at the Vizag museum. KMDA has already identified the architect who will develop the place into an attractive naval museum and has submitted the proposal to the Urban Development department. "There will be a restaurant, a gaming console for children , a short film to show details of the aircraft along with its component and uses , a gallery for public viewing, a tunnel leading to the inside of the aircraft . The place will be developed as a major tourist attraction, " said the KMDA official. The time frame set for developing the museum completely from now on is around 8 months.
The Tu-142 has lived its total technical life and it is no longer economically viable to keep in service. Russia continues to operate its Tu-142 fleet, but the cold conditions they function in are much easier on the aircraft. The aircraft was the Soviet Union's answer during the Cold War to America's Polaris, the world's first submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) with a range of 1,800 km.. Designated the "Bear" by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, for which the aircraft remained an enigma, more than a hundred Tu-142 variants were built for the Soviet Russian, Ukrainian and Indian navies. The Navy wants to preserve them rather than just disposing them as scrap materials.
