Titan and Matsya-6000

• The Titan submersible has imploded in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Titan is a submersible, or an underwater vehicle operated by the privately owned U.S. company OceanGate that organises underwater expeditions for both research and tourism.
• Titan tragedy offers lessons for proposed Indian submersible dive because India is in the process of designing the submersible,‘MATSYA 6000’

ABOUT ‘MATSYA 6000’

• ‘MATSYA 6000’ vehicle is being designed and developed by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai under Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• It will carry three persons to a depth of 6000 metres for exploration of deep-sea resources like minerals into the Indian Ocean, at a point about 1,500 km away from Kanyakumari.
• It has an endurance of 12 hours under normal operation and 96 hours in case of emergency for human safety.

ABOUT DEEP OCEAN MISSION

• The Centre had approved the Deep Ocean Mission at a total budget of Rs. 4,077 crore for five years.
• It is a multi-ministerial, multi-disciplinary programme with emphasis on development of deep-sea technology that includes development of Manned Submersible rated for 6000 metre water depth.
• Also technologies for deep sea mining, exploration of deep-sea minerals resources and marine biodiversity, development of ocean climate change advisory services, deep sea surveys and exploration, and capacity building in Marine Biology to be developed.

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OCEAN TECHNOLOGY (NIOT)

• Established in November 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• It is managed by a Governing Council and the Director is the head of the Institute.
• Aims to develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve the various engineering problems associated with harvesting of non-living and living resources in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).