As a part of Samudrayaan Mission undertaken by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, India aims to send three persons to 6000 meters below sea level.
Key points
- The mission heralds India’s ushering into an era of “Blue Economy” which is going to play a major part in building India’s overall economy during the years to come.
- A vehicle called MATSYA will carry three persons to a depth of 6000 meters for exploration of deep-sea resources like minerals.
- This mission was expected to be realised in next three years.
- MATSYA 6000 is being designed and developed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- It has an endurance of 12 hours under normal operation and 96 hours in case of emergency for human safety.
- The design of the vehicle is completed and realization of various components of the vehicle is in progress.
- Manned submersible facilitates the direct observation by the human in deep ocean in exploring mineral resources rich in nickel, cobalt, rare earths, manganese etc. and collection of samples, which can be used for analysis.
- The Centre had approved the Deep Ocean Mission at a total budget of ₹4,077 crore for five years. The estimated cost for the first phase for the three years (2021-2024) is ₹2,823.4 crore.
- India has a unique maritime position, a 7517 km long coastline, which is home to nine coastal states and 1,382 islands.
