Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Sep 9: India has launched a state-of-the-art ocean research vessel, ORV Sagar Manthan, to expand indigenous oceanographic research and strengthen the country's maritime capabilities, an official statement said on Wednesday.
The vessel was launched at Rishi Bankim Shipyard in Kolkata in the virtual presence of Earth Sciences Minister Dr Jitendra Singh. His spouse, Manju Singh, named the vessel in keeping with the tradition.
The ship was designed, engineered and constructed by defence public sector undertaking Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE) for the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
Dr Singh praised the team for completing the launch within just two years of signing the contract and barely five months after the keel was laid, describing it as an exceptional display of efficiency.
The vessel is equipped with advanced systems, including dynamic positioning, multibeam bathymetry, multichannel seismic systems, sub-bottom profiling, weather radar and drop keels. It also has facilities to deploy Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
ORV Sagar Manthan will support multidisciplinary exploration along the mid-oceanic ridges of the Indian Ocean to identify multi-metal hydrothermal sulphide mineralisation, establish environmental baselines, collect upper-air data and undertake CTD profiling.
The vessel has been engineered to operate in extreme oceanic environments, including the Southern Ocean, and has a projected service life of 30 years.
It will gradually replace the 43-year-old ORV Sagar Kanya as India's advanced oceanographic research platform, Dr Singh said. He also highlighted MoES plans to acquire more oceanographic vessels and a Polar Research Vessel in the near future.
"This fine ship is India's first advanced Ocean Research Vessel built by GRSE, displaying the required thrust towards Atmanirbharta and self-reliance," the minister said.
"Solid data collected by vessels like ORV Sagar Manthan will allow India to lead the global path in disaster prevention, take corrective environmental measures, and play a pivotal role in global ocean geopolitics," he added.
Dr T. Srinivasa Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, expressed pride in India's policy shift from acquiring research platforms abroad to building them domestically.
He said ocean research was the foundation for understanding climate challenges, predicting tsunamis and strengthening maritime capabilities.
The new vessel will also undertake underway swath multibeam surveys, geophysical profiling, atmospheric observations and water-column sampling, Kumar said.