CHENNAI: To usher in ‘Blue Revolution’, India will pump an estimated Rs 10,000 cr into its deep-sea mission, which is scheduled to be launched in March next year. M Rajeevan Nair, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said the mission was an inter-ministerial and interdisciplinary project aimed to explore and mine mineral wealth beneath the ocean floor.
“The ministry is currently preparing a detailed project report (DPR) and NIOT will be implementing the mission. Several departments and ministries like Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Indian Space Research Organisation etc will be part of the mission,” he said.
The mission intends to harness the ocean’s resources in a ‘responsible way.’ The project would have a huge impact on an exploration of deep-ocean energy and deep-sea fishing among others, Rajeevan said. For instance, though India has the right to do krill fishing in Antarctic, due to lack of technology, the resources have been left unexplored. Similar is the case with deep-sea fishing.