CHENNAI: First it was cyclonic storm Ockhi and now the depression over southeast Bay of Bengal. Multi-disciplinary research vessel Sagar Nidhi’s deep sea scientific exploration was halted by twin trouble over the last few days. The last two cruises were affected as she was forced to return and drop anchor at Chennai Port.
The vessel was supposed to conduct a few critical experiments as part of India’s bid to exploit ores and mineral deposits on sea floor, for which an integrated mining system was under development for demonstration of deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules.
Sagar Nidhi is operated by Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology, which will be spearheading the `10,000 crore Deep Sea Mission, likely to be launched in March next year.
NIOT officials told Express that the vessel was carrying heavy mining equipment, whose deployment was impossible due to rough sea. “There were slurry pumps, etc., that needed to be tested. But mechanical problems cropped up in deployment of slurry pumps and extreme weather under the influence of Ockhi, forcing Sagar Nidhi to head to Chennai,” a senior scientist said.
The problem is that Sagar Nidhi is scheduled to go to dry dock this week for maintenance, before which the equipment testing ought to be completed. The vessel will not be available at least for two to three months. Sources said the NIOT is trying to postpone the dry dock so that the vessel could be used to complete the task.
“Though the ship can weather the storms, deployment of heavy equipment was too risky. Now, there is another depression forming in the Bay of Bengal, which means the vessel has to stay in Chennai Port for another few days. As per the Meteorological Department forecast, the depression will intensify further and move towards North Tamil Nadu and AP coast which would hamper the scientific mission.
There should be constant tension on the rope that is used to deploy the equipment. Any adverse movement would make the mission unsuccessful,” NIOT sources said.
Nautical points
Government of India has an area of 75,000 sq km in Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) for carrying out survey and exploration of potato-shaped, largely porous nodules, found in abundance carpeting the sea floor
A rough estimate says that polymetallic nodules in the site allotted to India by International Seabed Authority is about 380 million tonne with 0.55 MT of Cobalt, 4.7 MT of Nickel, 4.29 MT of Copper and 92.59 MT of Manganese
Sagar Nidhi is operated by Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology, which will be spearheading the `10,000 crore Deep Sea Mission, likely to be launched in March next year
Sagar Nidhi is scheduled to dock in a week for maintenance, before which the equipment testing ought to be completed. It will not be available at least for two to three months. NIOT is trying to postpone docking so that the vessel could be used for the task