Sagar Nidhi, a highly sophisticated custom-built vessel, will be used for conducting oceanic studies on the fuel of the future—gas hydrates (natural gas and water frozen together into solid substance in the ocean’s deep waters)—and search for scientific evidences about origin of life and cures for chronic diseases. The vessel has been booked for research programmes by several scientific organisations, including the IITs, the geographical institutes of Kolkata and Hyderabad and the IISc, Bangalore, till 2009.

Pointing out that the sea largely remained unexplored, Rajasekhar said: “We have the know-how, but lack resources and infrastructure.”

The institute was testing a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) which can go 2,000 metres deep. Hydrate reserves were available in abundance in the Bay of Bengal and India would be joining the US and the UK in the exploration. Scientists will also use the Sagar Nidhi, built to support research programmes in the polar region, to find out how bacteria and organisms thrive in temperatures as high as 80 degrees Celsius around volcanic eruptions. This, scientists believe, would help in their search for medicines for incurable diseases.

The vessel would be used for launching tsunami monitoring systems and remotely operable vehicles, for identifying mines and gas hydrates. “These systems have to be deployed precisely at a chosen location,” said Rajasekhar. The ship with its main feature, which is dynamic positioning, will give an accuracy of five metres during deployments, “the best in the world”.