Museums In India

Tamil Nadu Ins Vela

A museum is a place of knowledge which conserves) a collection of objects of artistic,  scientific, cultural, or historical importance , presenting them for the view of public viewing through exhibits , with our without entry restrictions and most of them charging a fee for entrance.

Museums are generally classified according to the nature of collections, which may be listed as

• Art museums
• Archaeology museums
• Botanic gardens   and Zoological parks 
• Encyclopedic museums
• History museums
• Historic house museums
• Living history museums
• Military and war museums
• Maritime museums
• Mobile museums
• Natural history museums
• Open-air museums
• Specialized museums
• Pop-up museums
• Science museums
• Virtual museums

Maritime museums are generally established to show visitors various maritime war activities in maritime field and to enthuse youngsters to join navy as their career. In this spirit, the India Government has established a few maritime museums using decommissioned war ships which had played wonderful role in their war history.

INS Vela (S40) which was a warship of  Vela classificationwith  diesel-electric submarines of the Indian Navy, which  was on active service from 1973 to 2010, has been earmarked to be part of Samudram maritime museum in Tamilnadu Shores, in a place earmarked near Mamallapuram near Chennai.

History

INS Vela served Indian Navy for 37 years, was decommissioned in June 2010 and has been chosen as one of the bases in which the grandly planned Samudram Maritime Museum in Chennai shores of Tamilnadu.

INS Vela belonging to the first 'Foxtrot' submarines was bought by India from the then Soviet Union in during 1970s, and served 37 years under 23 different Commanding Officers which can be considered as the oldest unit in Indian Navy having had her operational life participating in almost all major war exercises during all the war situations in the country. INS Vela was the first submarine to be based at Mumbai, later shifted base port to Visakhapatnam in the year 1993. Although one of the oldest units commissioned in the Indian Navy, INS Vela continued its performance with distinction.

INS Vela will now find a permanent resting place on the sands closer to Mamallapuram to be part of the maritime heritage project Samudram being formed by the Tamil Nadu government.

Description

INS Vela which was commissioned on 31 August 1973 was decommissioned on 25 June 2010 was a Vela Class Submarine with a displacement of 1952 t ( 1921 long tons) in the surface and 2475 t (2436 long tons) under the water. Its dimensions are 91.3 m (299.5 ft) in length and 7.5 m( 24 ft 7 in) in beam, with a draught of 6 m( 19 ft 8 in), which can maintain 16 knots , that is 30 km per hour in the surface and 15 knots, that is 28 km per hour in the submerged condition.

This vessel will be a spectacular piece of exhibition showing every section of a Submarine.

How to Reach

Chennai being the Capital City of Tamilnadu is reachable by road, rail and air very conveniently.

The city has a huge bus stand at Koyambedu, to which location long distance buses operate from all destinations of Tamilnadu and also the neighbouring states.

Chennai has two main railway stations, Egmore and Central, connecting all important destinations in the south as well as north, major trains like Shadapti, Rajdhani, Durrantetc having links with all the other metros and important cities like Bangalore, Pune etc.

Kamaraj Domestic Airport and Anna International Airport, both of them located at Meenambakkam within the city, is well connected with all the destinations in India and abroad.

Timings and Ticket Prices

This will be available when the Project is over in a few months.

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