- The ‘Samudrayaan’ is a part of the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ pilot project for deep ocean mining for rare minerals.
- The project proposes to send a submersible vehicle with three persons to a depth of about 6000 metres to carry out deep underwater studies
- The project is being undertaken by National Institute of Ocean Technology.
- Recently, the Indian government has given approval to the Deep Ocean Mission (DOM). The mission proposes to explore Deep Ocean similar to space exploration started by ISRO.
- Key areas of the mission are: a) Deep-sea mining: exploitation of polymetallic nodules(PMN), b) Ocean climate change advisory services, c) Underwater vehicles, d) Underwater robotics related technologies
- Two key projects have been planned under the Mission: a) Desalination plant powered by tidal energy, b) Submersible vehicle equipped to explore depths of at least 6,000 metres.
- The mission will be led by the Union Earth Sciences Ministry. It will be a five-year mission and is expected to commence from October 31, 2019.
- India has been allocated a site of 75,000 sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin by the International Sea Bed Authority for exploration of polymetallic nodules from seabed.
- The estimated resource of polymetallic nodules 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.
