New Delhi:  INS Khukri was decommissioned on Thursday after 32 years of excellent service to the country. It was the first of the indigenously built missile corvettes. The decommissioning program of the ship was held at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. In this program, the national flag, the ensign of the Navy and the decommissioning pennant were lowered at sunset.

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta was the chief guest in this program. Along with this, some serving and retired former commanding officers of the ship were also present in the decommissioning ceremony. The corvette was built on 23 August 1989 by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders and had the distinction of being inducted into the Western Fleet. The ship was commissioned in Mumbai by then Defense Minister Krishna Chandra Pant and MVC's late Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla's wife Sudha Mulla with Commander (now Vice Admiral Retd) Sanjeev Bhasin as its first commanding officer.

The ship was commanded by 28 commanding officers during its service. INS Khukri traveled more than 6,44,897 nautical miles, which is equivalent to circling the whole world 30 times. With this, this distance is three times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. INS Khukri was attached to the Gorkha Brigade of the Indian Army. This is the reason why Gorkha Brigade President Lt Gen PN Ananthanarayan also attended the event.

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