Nausena Shaurya Vatika
In CG City, about 500 metres from Ekana stadium and beside the urban wetland, Lucknow now has an open-air Navy garden. People say Nausena Shaurya Vatika, or the Navy museum. It is not on the Gomti Riverfront. It is not in the cantonment, though some listings still dump it there. The Indian Navy and Uttar Pradesh Tourism built it; Lucknow Development Authority runs it. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated it on 30 May 2026. The public gate opened on Independence Day, 15 August 2026.
History
The centrepiece is INS Gomti, a frigate that served about 34 years and was decommissioned in May 2022. She was named for Lucknow’s river. Opening-week reports also tie the ship’s crest to Chattar Manzil. What stands in CG City is not the whole hull floating in the Gomti. Times of India, after the public opening, wrote that visitors can walk through parts of the warship and see equipment from her service, with history panels at the entrance. The open-air garden around her holds a TU-142 maritime patrol aircraft, the long-range submarine hunter, and a set of ship-borne weapons.
Hindustan Times, covering the complex as Nausena Shaurya Sangrahalaya and Vatika, described two phases: the outdoor vatika with the TU-142, and a larger museum building conceived in the shape of a ship. Combined cost in that report was a little over 42 crore rupees. Whether every indoor gallery is open the afternoon you visit is a board fact. LDA vice-chairperson Prathamesh Kumar has said the authority will operate and maintain the site, and that a cafeteria would follow. Tenders for a restaurant were still being spoken of when the public gate opened. Do not plan lunch on a stall that is not there yet.
What to see
Walk the warship sections you are allowed into. Look at the TU-142 from the paths. The published outdoor list, from LDA briefings in Times of India, includes a capstan drum, the main and fore masts of INS Gomti, an AK-726 medium-range gun, an AK-230 gun, a P-21 anti-ship missile and containers, a triple torpedo launcher, and a SET-53M (also printed CET-53M) anti-submarine piece. Later TOI copy added a JIF-101 launcher and an A-244S triple launcher, plus navigation radar and electronic-warfare gear from the ship. Read the plaques. Do not climb what is railed off. Children like the scale of the aircraft and the guns. That is the point of an open-air Navy park this far from the sea.
This is not a zoo and not a river picnic. Lucknow Zoo is Banarasi Bagh. The river walk is Gomti Nagar. Rashtra Prerna Sthal is the other new memorial, on Hardoi Road in Basant Kunj. Come here for the Navy hardware and the Gomti name on a ship, then leave CG City without inventing a riverside jetty that does not exist at this gate.
Visiting
LDA said the museum would run daily from 10 am to 8 pm. Times of India on 15 August 2026 quoted free entry for the first two weeks, then Rs 50 for adults and Rs 25 for children. A follow-up TOI report after opening said free entry till 31 August 2026, same paid rates after. Today is 28 August 2026, so that free window is still on the calendar and about to close. Confirm at the LDA counter: the day’s ticket, whether the ship walk-through is open, whether any indoor gallery is shut. Do not argue a blog rate at the window.
Say CG City, Ekana Gate 5, Navy museum, to the auto. App cabs know Ekana; the last 500 metres are the wetland side. There is no Metro station at the gate. Parking is whatever LDA has marked on the day. Summer afternoons on an open apron are harsh; mornings and winter light are kinder on metal and aircraft skin. A flag-hoisting by 3 UP Naval Unit marked 15 August. Ordinary days are quieter. Carry water. There may be no reliable canteen yet.
Nearby
Janeshwar Mishra Park is the large LDA lawn in Gomti Nagar Extension, a short hop if you want grass after steel. Lulu Mall and Phoenix Palassio sit on Amar Shaheed Path, the shopping corridor, not the wetland. The Gomti Riverfront and Food Valley are the evening walk in Gomti Nagar proper. More of the city is listed under places.
Come to see a Navy garden in a landlocked capital. Call it Nausena Shaurya Vatika or the Ekana Navy museum. If you only say “Gomti,” the driver will take you to the river.