In an 86-day-long excercise, a fire raging at an offshore platform about 160 km off Mumbai due to uncontrolled flow of gas from a well, was finally put out early today. The second relief well being drilled to control the gas flow from well number B-121-D was completed and as the flow stopped, the fire on the platform was extinguished by 2 am, according to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

INS Hosdurg decommissioned

The INS Hosdurg, a Nanuchka class Corvette commissioned at Riga in the former Soviet Union on January 15, 1978, was decommissioned at the Naval Dockyard on Saturday. Named after the Hosdurg Fort in Kerala, the ship was part of the 21st Killers Squadron and at one time was amongst the most powerful multi-role warships in the navy fitted with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles besides an anti-aircraft gun.