After much debate and planning, the decommissioned aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, will be permanently moored off Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra, as a grand museum. The Maharashtra Cabinet on Thursday approved the plan and sanctioned R852 crore for the ambitious project. The museum will be yet another attraction in Sindhudurg which is the state's first officially tagged tourism district.

Three states — Maharashtra, Goa and Andhra Pradesh — were in the race for the Viraat maritime museum project. "The project will be located off the Nivati Rocks in the Malvan coast in Sindhudurg and the Defence Ministry has been intimated," said a statement from the Devendra Fadnavis government.