KOCHI: As part of the four-day World Ocean Science Congress being held in Kochi, an expo has begun at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium. The expo is open to the public, and provides an opportunity to visitors to learn more about the advancements made by various national agencies, including the Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratories (NPOL) and Defence Research and Development organization (DRDO), in ocean monitoring and coastal surveillance.
The stalls at the expo have screens to display live feeds of the coastal surveillance systems installed by the NPOL at Fort Kochi and the model of the unmanned underwater surveillance vehicle developed by the DRDO, which can even be used for defusing mines.
“The aim of setting up the stalls is to create awareness among the public on the research activities and systems developed by us for coastal surveillance and deepwater communication,” says NPOL director S Anantha Narayanan. “ The NPOL is the sole manufacturer of the SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) equipment in the country, ensuring self-sufficiency in surveillance systems. Now, we have started exporting our SONAR machines to Myanmar, and are planning to export them to more countries,” he said. “Our underwater communication systems provide support to fishermen by providing them vital information about international maritime boundaries and areas deep under the sea where they can locate presence of fish in abundance,” said DRDO scientist P M Manoj.
Some of the stalls look like mini control-rooms, where the exhibits include those from the Cochin Shipyard, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, National Institute of Ocean Technology, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering and Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute.