An indigenous design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrometer are described for carrying out spectroscopic research of atomic and molecular gases and vapours using Indus-I synchrotron source of radiation commissioned at Center for Advanced Technology, Indore India. The spectrometer is based on an off-axis Eagle type of compact mounting suitable for the VUV region of the spectrum. The spectrometer consists of a concave grating of radius of curvature 6.65 m as a dispersing element and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) as a radiation detection element. The reciprocal linear dispersion of the instrument is about I.24 Å/mm with a grating of 1200 grooves/mm. The wavelength resolution achieved is 0.08 Å. The wavelength resolution can be obtained as 0.005 Å by replacing the present grating of 1200 grooves/mm with a grating of 4800 grooves/mm useful in the wavelength region from 400 Å to 2000 Å. The present wavelength range of the spectrometer is from 400 Å to 5800 Å with the grating of 1200 grooves/mm. For one wavelength setting of the grating, a spectral band of 200 Å can be recorded by moving the PMT along the Rowland circle of diameter 6.65m. For changing the wavelength region, the grating is first rotated and then translated by two stepper motors controlled by a personal computer. The accuracy achieved in the angular rotation of the grating is I arc-sec whereas the accuracy achieved in the linear displacement of the grating is 22 microns. The precision optical alignment for obtaining a well focused spectrum and subsequent performance evaluation of the spectrometer have been done in the wavelength region from 2900 Å to 5800 Å because of the availability of spectral lamps such as mercury discharge lamp and He-Ne laser and due to the convenience of aligning the optical spectrometer in air rather than in vacuum. Various spectral lines of mercury have been recorded in the photographic mode as well as in the photoelectric mode. The recorded spectral lines of wavelengths 5790.66 Å, 5769.6 Å, 5460.74 Å, 4358.33 Å, 4077.83 Å, 4046.56 Å, 3663.28 Å, 3654.84 Å, 3650.15 Å, 3131.84 Å, 3131.55 Å, 3125.67 Å, 3021.5 Å, 2967.28 Å, are found to be sharp. The spectrometer will be coupled to the high resolution VUV beam line at Indus-I, Centre for Advance Technology. Indore. The expected resolution will be 0.005 Å in the wavelength range of 700 Å to 2000 Å by using the grating of 4800 grooves/mm as a dispersing element.