BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said a national level task force integrating all research institutes will be constituted soon for the development of suitable technologies for effective mining of some deep-sea minerals and exploitation of gas hydrates resources.
Inaugurating new facilities at the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) here, Singh said steps are being taken for collaboration between IMMT and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai for developing the country’s blue economy and harnessing its ocean resources.
In October, the Minister had launched India’s first manned ocean mission Samudrayan in Chennai to carry out deep ocean exploration of non-living resources including poly-metallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts, located at depths between 1,000 and 5,500 metres.