CHENNAI: Union Minister for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan dedicated Sagar Anveshika, a new coastal research vehicle, to the nation at the Chennai Port on Saturday. Sagar Anveshika, which is only the second of the two such coastal research vessels, was built for the National Institute of Technology (NIOT) by Titagarh Wagons.
It enables scientists to go as deep as 3 km into the Indian Ocean to research and collect data on ocean resources. The scientists could stay for up to 15 hours in the sea, said the Union minister. The vessel is 43-metres long with a draft of 2.5 metres, and has a capacity to accommodate as many as eight scientists and 12 crew members for an endurance of 15 days.
According to sources, the ship is being utilised for shallow water operations along the Indian coast for various programmes under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and serves as a national facility for ocean research. Sagar Tara, the first such research vessel, was delivered to NIOT in August 2019. Sagar Anveshika has been launched ahead of its schedule, despite having a complex technologically-advanced platform, to enable scientists to conduct various oceanographic research missions aboard.
The vessel also features a Drop Keel that houses various transducers of scientific analysis equipment, such as the multibeam echosounder, ADCP, sub-bottom profiler, etc. This comes at a time when the Central government is in advanced stage of developing an “ambitious” deep ocean mission, said the minister. The deep ocean mission would study the various aspects of ocean in an integrated framework, just as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been studying the space.
It focuses on boosting exploration of India’s Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf. Stating that oceans were a source for energy, water and food, Harsh Vardhan said, “Research in deep ocean could help in identifying potential fishing zones which will strengthen the economy.” He added that India has developed a state-of-the-art technology which would give alerts on tsunami, before any other country. Similarly, there is rapid improvement in weather forecasting, and the country is among the top three nations in the world in this area. Alerts on weather are being given to farmers on a large scale, he added.