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 rele