Mumbai: Defunct fighter aircraft restored at Nehru Science Centre

The aircraft at the Nehru Science Centre outdoor park. Pic/Ashish Raje

Lockdown limbo has meant timeout for repairs and restoration at the Nehru Science Centre in Mahalaxmi. The sprawling space has a number of lawns outside, with science learning exhibits, statues of eminent scientists and their place in the world of invention explained on plaques and symbols of both history and science. One of the exhibits installed in the outdoor science park is the HF-24 Marut Fighter aircraft, which played a stellar role in the battle of Longewala.

A challenge
Shivaprasad Khened, Science Centre director, said, "One of the now defunct aircraft was gifted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to our Mahalaxmi centre in 1978-79. Ever since, the HF-24 aircraft is on display at our science park. The climatic conditions of Mumbai have taken a toll on this precious piece of flying history, which is rusted and badly damaged."

Also Read: Mumbai: Nehru Science Centre in Worli reopening for public on November 10

Khened added, "This centre is open for the public for 363 days in a year, and restoring this aircraft was always going to be a challenge, given that we did not have a time-off window. Then, the pandemic threw the world into a tailspin, and we decided to seize the downtime to give a facelift to this aircraft." The Centre had a severe fund crunch, but the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) responded to an emotional appeal and the Nashik branch sent three people to survey the damage first.

Team effort
Khened explained that the survey set in motion a chain of events and soon, a nine-member team made it to Mumbai with all restoration material, including paint from overseas! "This team stayed at our Centre for two weeks, working extraordinarily hard. The result is an aircraft which carries so much of our past, fairly recent it may be on its wings, back to its earlier pristine condition," said the director. The Nehru Centre staffers admitted that the shed in which the aircraft is housed, "needs work too. We will take that up next year."

Border movie
Movie buffs will recall 'The 1971 battle of Longewala' immortalised in the Hindi film, Border. Longewala witnessed an epic exchange where the Indian army, with support from the air force flying Marut and Hawker aircrafts, took on a massive Pakistani paltan that majorly outweighed the Indians many times in men and arms. Overcoming the odds, India won the 1971 confrontation against Pakistan. Bangladesh was liberated. Post that engagement, these HF-24s started being phased out of Indian squadrons in the 1980s with the last aircraft being retired from 31 Squadron in 1990. These HF-24 Marut aircraft are now spread across the country and are on display in some public spaces.

The backstory
The Nehru Science Centre re-opened for the public on November 10. Earlier in the outbreak, this space housed a COVID-19 facility, part of the sweeping Worli expanse taken over for pandemic purposes. That facility has long since been dismantled. The Mahalaxmi Centre, which used to see at least 1,000 visitors daily pre-pandemic, is witnessing far lesser numbers. Yet that is to be expected and Centre officials are optimistic that students and tourists including science aficionados will eventually be back in full strength. Here, they will witness amongst other things the restored aircraft, silent sentinel to India's history and heroics in the skies.

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