Exclusive portal to impart info on marine resources launched under Chennai's NIOT

CHENNAI: Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) Secretary Dr M Ravichandran on Saturday launched a web portal for Marine Microbial Repository under the Deep Ocean Mission at NIOT, Chennai.

Speaking at the 31st NIOT Foundation Day here, he appreciated the work undertaken, highlighting that much of the domains it was working in were niche engineering and technology areas, and stressed that the country looked up to them.

He also exhorted NIOT to undertake capacity building by not only having collaborative research with the academia but also with industry in developing vertical experts. He appealed for converting ideas to products and in progressively transforming imports to indigenous development.

A PIB release said NIOT has made progress over the years in development of the various modules of Blue Economy, sustainable use of ocean resources, having societal impact.

Prof Balaji Ramakrishnan, Director, NIOT gave an overview of the work undertaken, desalination projects in the Lakshadweep Islands being one of the notable ones.

Other initiatives such as development of deep sea submersibles, mining trials for marine resources (polymetallic nodules in particular), coastal protection, collection of marine data for weather and climate change assessment and prediction, fish cage culture and deep water biotechnology were also highlighted.

The Ballast Water Treatment Technologies Test Facility (BWTT-TF) established at the NIOT Sea Front Site at Pamanji and Vagarru villages in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh was dedicated to the Nation by the Secretary, MoES.

This facility is designed to comply with the international regulations of the Ballast Water Convention 2004 for testing and validation of Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS) as per D2-discharge regulations of International Maritime Organization (IMO).

This facility is unique and one of this kind in the tropical region and in South East Asia.