Indian Navy receives indigenously built aircraft carrier "Vikrant"

NEW DELHI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Indian Navy on Thursday received the delivery of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) "Vikrant" from the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) in the southern city of Kochi.

The IAC was designed by the Indian Navy's inhouse Directorate of Naval Design, and was built by the CSL, a government-owned shipyard under the Ministry of Shipping.

The IAC would soon be commissioned into the Indian Navy as "Indian Naval Ship Vikrant."

The 262-meter-long carrier has a full displacement of close to 45,000 tonnes. The ship is powered by four gas turbines totaling 88-MW power and has a maximum speed of 28 knots.

Built at an overall cost of close to 200 billion Indian Rupees (around 2.51 billion U.S. dollars), the project has progressed in three phases of the contract between the Ministry of Defence and the CSL, concluded in May 2007, December 2014 and October 2019 respectively.

An Indian Navy statement said with the delivery of IAC Vikrant, India has joined a group of nations having the capability to indigenously design and build an aircraft carrier.