Ship built by GRSE to explore Indian Ocean for rare minerals, says official

A ship to be built by defence PSU Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) as part of its pact with a Goa-based government institution will explore the deep Indian Ocean for rare minerals and metals, officials said on Thursday.

With a length of 89.5 metres, it will be the largest research vessel to be built in an Indian shipyard for deep sea exploration, a spokesperson of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa said in a release.

The vessel will be deployed for undertaking deep sea scientific surveys and sampling towards the Deep Ocean Mission of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, he said.

It will have an all-weather capability and capacity to carry 34 scientists at a time and is expected to serve India for the next 30 years, he said.

The vessel, to be built by the Kolkata-headquartered GRSE in 36 months at a contract value of Rs 839.55 crore, will "explore the deep Indian Ocean for rare minerals and metals as part of India's Deep Ocean Mission," the release said.

The contract was signed by officials of the GRSE and NCPOR in Goa on Tuesday, it said.

The state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research vessel will be built by the GRSE under the government's 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.

"The vessel will have a maximum speed of 14 Knots and will be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories, scientific equipment and facilities," the spokesperson said.

It will be a multidisciplinary vessel, covering all areas of oceanography and deep sea mineral exploration, with major facilities like multibeam bathymetry system, multichannel seismics, various ocean profilers, seabed samplers, onboard analytical systems, and all requisite heavy-duty deck machinery, the release said.

"It 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 spokesperson said.

The vessel is designed for Silent-A specifications to minimise the underwater radiated noise, he said.

The new ship will be built under the dual classification of Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and will conform to the latest MARPOL (Marine Pollution) standards of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the release said.

The overall length of the vessel will be 89.50 metre and it will be 18.80 metre wide, the official said, adding that the ship will have a gross weight of 5,900 tonnes, a GRSE official said in a statement on Tuesday.

In December 2023, GRSE delivered INS Sandhayak, the largest survey vessel to be built in the country, to the Indian Navy.

Three more vessels of this class are at various stages of completion at the shipyard, the official said, adding that this experience will stand GRSE in good stead while designing and building the ocean research vessel for NCPOR.