India's solitary aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, will turn 50 this year and the Navy plans a befitting celebration to mark the golden jubilee.

"Yes, we intend to mark the golden jubilee of INS Viraat's naval service with celebrations planned for early part of this year," a Navy officer told PTI here today.

The celebrations would take place soon after the warship, which is currently docked at the Cochin Shipyard for repairs and maintenance, gets sailing again, he said.

On May 12, INS Viraat would complete 23 years of its service with the Indian Navy. Taking into account its British Royal Navy service in its earlier avatar as HMS Hermes, the warship will complete 50 years on November 18 and hence the celebration.

The Indian Navy had acquired the Centaur Class aircraft carrier in 1987 from the British after it had served them for nearly 28 years (first inducted on November 18, 1959) and re-christened it as INS Viraat.

Consequently, the British Navy too would be requested to join the events to celebrate the warship that has served both countries so well.

In fact, after the current round of repairs, India is likely to make the aircraft carrier labour on till 2015.

By then, the 28,000-tonne warship would have completed 55 years of service, over twice and way beyond its estimated sailing life of 25 years.

The success of Indian Navy in keeping INS Viraat fighting fit for so many years, much after its expected service life, has only awed the world naval community. Defence Minister A K Antony told the Lok Sabha in 2006 that a study group that explored feasibility of extending INS Viraat's service life recommended that it be anchored in 2012, after repairs and routine maintenance.

INS Viraat is central to the Navy's concept of power projection much beyond shores, and the warship, with its complement of Sea Harrier jumpjets and Sea King helicopters, is India's two acres of sovereign territory on the high seas.

Apart from some major and minor refits at different times, including one in 2006, INS Viraat underwent an extensive life-extension refit in 1999-2000, with new and upgraded propulsion, sensor, sonar, radar, weapon, communication and flood-control systems.

An officer, who had served on INS Viraat said the ship was in quite good shape now. "In fact, a visiting British officer said it was in a much better condition now than when he served on it in late 1970s," he added.

With the Indian Navy purchasing Admiral Gorshkov from Russia in 2004 and its likely induction as INS Vikramaditya by 2012 along with 16 MiG-29K fighters as part of a Rs 6,900-crore deal, the Navy hopes to have two fully-operational "carrier battle groups" to act as a stabilising influence in the entire Indian Ocean and beyond by 2012.

Moreover, the 37,500-tonne Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), being built at Cochin Shipyard, is likely to be fully operational sometime in 2015, which was reason enough to keep INS Viraat operational till then, Navy officers said.