Maiden trials for deep sea exploration in Indian Ocean successfully conducted

INDIA'S first move towards deep sea exploration was successfully conducted by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai.

- BALA CHAUHAN @Bengaluru

The maiden manned harbour trial of the much-awaited 'Samudrayan' project, a three-member deep sea exploration inside a fourth generation deep-ocean human scientific submersible 'Matsya-6000' was held between January 27 and February 12.

The successful wet test of the 'Matsya-6000' at the L&T harbour in Tamil Nadu will now pave the way for conducting shallow-water demonstrations at depths reaching up to 500 meters by the end of 2025.

'Samudrayan' is an ambitious project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is being implemented as part of the ₹4,800 crore 'Deep Ocean Mission' (DOM). Under the 'Samudrayan' project 'Matsya-6000' will go down up to the depth of 6,000 metres in the Indian Ocean in stages by 2026.

NIOT is an autonomous society under the MoES.