
SHASHWAT GUPTA RAY
shashwat@herald-goa.com
VASCO: India’s deep ocean mission received a boost as Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Limited, commenced the construction of India’s largest ever indigenously-built advanced Ocean Research Vessel (ORV) for the National Centre for Polar & Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, by initiating the steel-cutting ceremony on Friday.
The contract for the ORV, valued at Rs 840 crore, was signed between GRSE and NCPOR on July 16 this year.
“This marks an important milestone for deep ocean exploration in India wherein we are creating a state-of-art multidisciplinary ocean research platform, in line with the Vision 2047 of Government of India. This new ORV will enhance the deep sea surveys and exploration for next three decades and would enable our scientists to stand at par in the global science scenario,” Director, NCPOR, Dr Thamban Meloth told OHeraldo.
Advantages the new ORV will bring in for marine mineral exploration and deep sea processes will greatly benefit the society at large. The vessel is scheduled to be delivered in January 2028.
Explaining the difference between the under-construction vessel and the existing vessels, Meloth said, “Ministry of Earth Sciences and other R&D organisations in the country do possess ORVs. However, all our deep sea research vessels are old and few of them more than 40 years old. The new state-of-the-art oceanographic vessel having 89.5m length would be the largest research vessel to be built in an Indian shipyard meant for deep sea exploration.”
“The vessel will provide us with a unique platform for exploring and managing the vast potential of living and non-living resources in the ocean realms. The high-resolution geo-scientific data sets that shall be acquired using the new vessel shall provide greater inputs for Tsunami wave modelling, assessment of submarine geo-hazards, paleo-climatic studies etc apart from exploration of potential mineral resources in the Indian Ocean region,” said Dr John Kurian, Group Director, Marine Geoscience and Exploration, NCPOR.
The vessel will be fitted with a DP2 dynamic positioning system, which will enable very accurate manoeuvring and exact location maintenance required for high-precision scientific operations at sea.
The vessel is designed for Silent-A specifications to minimise the underwater radiated noise.
“The vessel will have all-weather capability and capacity to carry 35 scientists at a time apart from crew. The new ship will specially be built under the dual Classification of Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). 50T A-frame for handling heavy systems, 45 days sea endurance, weather radar etc are few major facilities available onboard this vessel,” said M M Subramaniam, Scientist In-charge, Vessel Operation and Management, NCPOR.
The special feature of the vessel shall be ICE-1C ice class, which will enable venturing into polar waters.
He further informed that the new vessel will have facilities like DP, heavy duty handling systems, multi-channel seismic, multi beam echo-sounder, ice class notation, greater science complement and longer endurance - all together on a single platform which was never a case so far of deep sea research vessels built in India.
“This will enable us to take up major R&D endeavours for furtherance of India’s ocean research capability in the coming decades,” he added.