In news– Recently, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences visited the Indian Subcontinent’s Pioneer Research Vessel Ship “Sagar Nidhi”.
About Sagar Nidhi-
- It is an ice-strengthened multidisciplinary vessel operated by the National Institute of Ocean Technology, India.
- It was built during the year 2007-08.
- The vessel is capable of carrying out geo-scientific, meteorological and oceanographic research.
- It is designed with blue-water capability with ranges of up to 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) for voyages lasting up to 45 days.
- It was constructed at Fincantieri, Italy.
- The 104-metre-long vessel has fully automatic diesel-electric propulsion equipped with a dynamic positioning system, azimuth thrusters.
- SagarNidhi is the first Indian flagged research ship that reached the 66°S latitude [Antarctic waters], facing 11 storms and 73 nm/hr wind speed, witnessing nature’s harshest conditions.
- MoES has, at present 6 ships, SagarNidhi, SagarManjusha, SagarKanya, SagarSampada, Sagar Tara & Sagar Anveshika, which are used for many ocean studies and applications including ocean observations.
National Institute of Technology (NIOT) Chennai-
- It has the mandate to develop technologies for the sustainable harvesting living and non-living resources of the ocean.
- NIOT has successfully developed and demonstrated the technologies like Desalination Plants for drinking water in Lakshadweep Islands, extracting energy from Oceans, Restoration of Beach in Puducherry, development of Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROV) and mining machine for 5500 metre water depths.
- It has the mandate to deploy and maintain moored data buoys for the data collection that aids in the weather prediction, cyclone tracking and Tsunami Early Warning.
- Research Vessel (Ships) is an important tool for ocean research and development of ocean technology.
Source: PIB
