India to venture in oceanography with 'Samudrayaan' project

India's ambition to send men to deep sea in a submersible vehicle is likely to be a reality in 2021-22 with 'Samudrayaan' project, a senior official said. project proposes to send a submersible vehicle with three persons to a depth of about 6000 metres to carry out deep underwater studies, National Institute of Ocean Techlogy (NIOT) Director MA Atmanand said.

indigeusly developed vehicle is capable of crawling on sea bed at a depth of six-kilometre for 72 hours, he said. "Similar to ISRO's plan to carry persons on a mission, NIOT has undertaken Samudrayaan. Rs 200 crore project proposes to carry three persons in a submersible vehicle to a depth of 6000 metres under sea for various studies. Submarines go only about 200 metres," Atmanand said, responding to a query about deep-sea mining.

'Samudrayaan' project undertaken by NIOT, Chennai, is in line with ISRO's ambitious 'Gaganyaan' mission of sending an astronaut to by 2022. success of 'Samudrayaan' will help India to join league of developed nations in exploration of minerals from oceans, Atmanand said. Such missions h alrey been carried by developed countries and India could be first among developing nations, he said.

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'Samudrayaan' is a part of Ministry of Earth Sciences' pilot project for deep ocean mining for rare minerals. "We will go deeper in phases with more trials and mining is expected to commence in 2022," Atmanand said. He was in city on Saturday to inaugurate a new coastal study vessel built by Titagarh Wagons Ltd. He also said this will be a part of Rs 6000 crore 'Deep Ocean Mission' that has received in-principle approval but is awaiting a final d from Union Finance Ministry.

"Final approvals are expected by October this year," Atmanand said. India has been allocated a site of 75,000 sq km in Central Indian Ocean Basin by International Sea Bed Authority for exploration of polymetallic dules from seabed. estimated resource of polymetallic dules is about 380 million tonnes, containing 4.7 million tonnes of nickel, 4.29 million tonnes of copper and 0.55 million tonnes of cobalt and 92.59 million tonnes of manganese.

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