The Deep Ocean Mission which was pending for a long time has been approved by the union cabinet. The mission is to be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs. 4,077 crore for a period of 5 years. It will be Phase-wise, where the first phase for 3 years(2021-2024) will be Rs. 2823.4crore.The Ministry of Earth Science [MoES] will be the Nodal Ministry implementing this multi-institutional mission. The institutions are ISRO, DRDO, BARC, CSIR, Department of Biotechnology etc.,
Deep Ocean Mission is a project to support the Blue Economy initiative of govt. of India. The mission will let India explore the Polymetallic nodules in the allotted area of 75,000 sq. km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin [COIB] by the UN National Seabed Authority. The rocks containing copper, iron, manganese, nickel and cobalt are scattered in the seabed.
The mission involves 6 main components they are:
1) Deep sea mining and Manned submersible:
Developing a manned submersible capable of carrying 3 people with scientific sensors and tools to a depth of 6000 metre. For mining of Polymetallic nodules in central Indian ocean an integrated mining system will be developed.
2) Ocean climate change advisory service:
Developing a suite of observations and models to understand and provide future projections of important climate variables on seasonal to decadal time scales.
3) Exploration and conservation of deep-sea habitat:
Technological innovations for exploring deep sea flora and fauna, including microbes and make study on sustainable utilization of these bio-resources.
4) Deep sea survey and exploration:
To explore and identify sources of hypothermal minerals as it is the source for precious metals formed from earth’s crust found along the Indian ocean mid oceanic ridges.
5) Energy and fresh water from ocean:
Studies and detailed engineering design for off shore Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation[OTEC] powered desalination plant.
6) Advanced marine station for ocean:
Developing Human resource in the ocean science field. By grooming experts and developing enterprises in ocean biology and engineering. This will translate research into industrial application and product development through online site business incubator facility.
The Deep Ocean Mission was envisaged in 2019 as Rs. 8000 crore mission. If it works, India will be in the list of those countries that is able to launch underwater mission in the unexplored depths of ocean.
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