Destination India

The Clemenceau: danger aboard< (Credit: Jean Michel Roche)Clemenceau, the decommissioned and rusty French aircraft carrier is all set to come to India to be taken apart after being refused entry by Greece and Turkey. It was taken off the hands of a Spanish contractor who unexpectedly tried to remove it from eu waters.

The vessel will be stripped of 210 tonnes of asbestos-laden insulation over the next six months in the southern French port of Toulon. Following this, it will be towed to a demolition yard in India where the residual asbestos will be removed and the hull demolished.

The announcement was made after a contract between the French government and a consortium, Ship Decommissioning Industries Corporation, led by the German company Eckhart Marine Gmbh. The carrier will yield around 22,000 tonnes of metal.

Environmental group Greenpeace has asserted that the Clemenceau should not be allowed to enter India unless it is decontaminated in accordance with international ship-breaking guidelines and the country's Supreme Court rulings on the subject.