"If any organisation comes forward with a really useful and inspiring project for converting Vikrant, we will certainly consider it," the Defence Minister told The Indian Express in Mumbai on Saturday.

"The Maharashtra government had said that they wanted to use it as a museum, so we said please do but under certain conditions. However, they could not fulfil all the conditions," he said adding, "In this situation if any other organisation comes forward to make use of the ship, we are ready to reconsider scrapping the ship."

Commenting on the State Government's decision to back out of the project, Fernandes said he had read it in the newspapers in the last three or four days, but did not have any direct communication from the State. But, hesaid, he did not feel let down by the Maharashtra Government for backing out of the project as maintaining and repairing the ship took a colossal amount of money. Even after being decommissioned, the Vikrant needs 500 Naval personnel to maintain it.

Talking about the ship, Fernandes said, Vikrant was a great warship but she has now come to the end of her useful life and could not be used as an aircraft carrier.

However, he sounded a note of caution on its end use. "We do not want it to be misused for entertainments like song and dance or a casino. The ship's honour must be maintained to remind people of its heritage," he said.The MoD has decided on not `gifting' the ship to a third party. "We have decided a certain price for the ship (around Rs 20 crore) and we would not like anyone else to make money out of it," the Defence Minister said.An order to scrap the ship hadn't been signed yet and this would again be conditional on any other party not being able to make proper use of it, Fernandesreplied.

Asked to comment on recent reports that Russia has given India a July deadline for purchasing their aircraft carrier Gorshkov, failing which it would re-enter service with the Russian navy, Fernandes replied that he had not received any such information and a deal to purchase the ship to replace the Vikrant was still under consideration.

"I have read in the newspapers that they would like an agreement by the end of July. We have a Memorandum of Understanding which was signed in December last year when the Russian Prime Minister Primakov was in India," the Defence Minister stated.

State not in position to finance ship: Rane

MUMBAI: CHIEF Minister Narayan Rane on Saturday stated that the Government could not make available the necessary finance to turn Vikrant, Indian Navy's decommissioned aircraft carrier, into a maritime museum but the project could be revived if some private party offered to make an investment. The project would cost about Rs 100 crore and the State Government was notin a position to spend that much, he added.