The research vessel of the National Institute of Oecanography (NIO) - Sindhu Sadhana - was flagged off from Visakhapatnam port on Sunday evening by the local member of Parliament, K. Haribabu, in the presence of NIO Director S.W.A Naqvi and Vizag Port chairman Krishnababu. The vessel was headed for Andamans.

The vessel was built at ABG Shipyard in Gujarat at a cost of Rs 220 crores and it can conduct research at a depth of 6,000 metres.

The director said "the country is facing paucity of research vessels in implementation of its research projects and the new vessel will be of great help." He said the vessel would meet the basic need of the NIO - having a weather sampling platform. With this vessel, the NIO would be better placed to help the industry in exploiting resources within our exclusive economic zone.

He said that after the NIO had acquired the vessel the ONGC had sanctioned a project to the NIO to carry out geophysical survey in the Krishna-Godavari basin at a cost of Rs 20 crores.

He said it was the largest project NIO had undertaken for the industry. “We are currently negotiating for bigger research projects from oil industry so that we can recover at least half of the operational cost of the ship,” he said and added that the vessel would be used for research in sectors such as food, energy, minerals, climate and environment.

He said the NIO had a major project on gas hydrates, which occur buried in deep sea floor.

“The vessel has the capacity to take deep sediment cores up to 24 metre long, so its acquisition will definitely provide an impetus to research on gas hydrates,” he said.

Vizag M.P Haribabu and Vizag port chairman also spoke.

>sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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