India completes trial run of ROV in deep-sea mining

Chennai, May 1 (PTI) In a significant step towards deep-
sea mining, India has successfully completed trial run of a
Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) that dived more than five km
depth to map sea-bed for resources in the Indian Ocean.
"The ROV has completed its trial run at a record depth of
over 5200 metres. It is a major achievement that we are able
to operate an unmanned vehicle at such depth where the
pressure would be unimaginable," Indian Minister of State for
Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan told reporters in the
southern metropolis Saturday.
The trial on April 17 was India's "first step towards
deep-sea mining", Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth
Sciences said.
Chavan, accompanied by top officials including Nayak, was
on his first visit to Chennai campus of National Institute of
Ocean Technology (NIOT), which is involved in the project.
With thinning terrestrial resources, and the focus
shifting on the sea for energy and other needs, "the
experience gained allows us to improve and replicate the
system," he said.
"Of course, the whole purpose of activities in ocean
science is to look at the possibilities of both living and
non-living resources that ocean has to give," Chavan said.
India became the first country to reach a depth of 5829
metres in central Indian Ocean, M A Atmanand, Director, NIOT,
said.
An Indian flag was dropped at the point, around 2500 km
from southernmost tip Kanyakumari, to mark the occasion, he
added. (More) PTI