After nearly six decades in service, Indias majestic aircraft carrier INS Viraat will set sail for the last time from Mumbai to Kochi this week, powered by its own boilers before it is decommissioned.

Once the ship berths itself with the Southern Naval Command on July 27 after sailing out from Mumbai on July 23, all valuable equipment on board like engines, radars, guns will be dismantled to prepare it for the decommissioning.

The ship will then be towed back to Mumbai where it will be decommissioned.

However, it is still not clear what will happen to the ship, which was India's sole aircraft carrier for over a decade once it is decommissioned.

Though there is a proposal to develop it into an adventure tourism centre or a museum, no decision has so far been taken by the Defence Ministry.

Military experts and enthusiasts hope that Viraat will not go the way INS Vikrant did. The ship, which took part the 1971 war, was sold as a scrap and disposed of shocking many.