Research ship to explore under-sea treasures

Aiming to explore the hidden treasures under the ocean, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s research wing CSIR has launched RV Sindhu Sadhana. The research ship, is a flagship vessel directly under the observation of the National Institute of Oceanography, (NIO) Goa, has conducted multiple result-oriented expeditions in a short span.

NIO director Swa <g data-gr-id="18">Naqbi</g>, who is donning the hat marine research for the past 41 years told Millennium Post that they are getting indicators on the existence of several microbial organisms in both the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

“Our next expedition is going to Bangladesh to explore the availability of minerals and study the changes in biodiversity in the Bay of Bengal. The findings will help analyse bio-productivity in oceans,” <g data-gr-id="16">Naqbi</g> said.

The ship, built at the cost of Rs 176 crore, has been tasked to explore the availability of minerals in the <g data-gr-id="17">Angira</g> Bank located in the Central Indian Ocean. 

“We have got some leads on <g data-gr-id="20">availability</g> of minerals such as manganese, cobalt, copper and nickels in the particular region of the sea. Much work is to be done to explore its extraction, which if done, the country will be richer by $310 million in near future,” Naqvi said.