Article Posted on : - Jan 12, 2014

India's biggest ship, aircraft Carrier INS Vikramaditya. Photo: PTI.

NEW DELHI (PTI): After a delay of almost five years, India's largest warship aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya on Tuesday reached its home base Karwar in Karnataka.

The long-awaited USD 2.3 billion aircraft carrier had started its voyage towards India from Russia after it was inducted formally on November 16 there by Defence Minister A K Antony.

The largest warship in our inventory reached Karwar, which is its home base and developed to berth a vessel of this size, Navy officials said here.

The aircraft carrier will now go through the process of getting inducted and be made fully operational as the Indian Navy pilots train to operate from it, they said.

The aircraft carrier is expected to take at least three to four months to get integrated in the force, they said.

With Vikramaditya, for the first time in over two decades, the Indian navy has two operational aircraft including the aging INS Viraat, which is likely to be decommissioned in the next few years.

Vikramaditya was earlier scheduled to be inducted into the Navy in November, 2012 but some defects in its engines and boilers led to a year-long delay.

India and Russia had signed the deal for the aircraft carrier in 2004.

The warship has been inducted into the Navy after a delay of almost five years and a cost over-run of almost one billion dollars.

India is also manufacturing its first indigenous aircraft carrier in Cochin which is likely to be operational by 2018.