>From deccan herald/ Aug 13 India plans to expand EEZ NIO developing underwater robots in collaboration with Portugal
>From Devika Sequeira DH News Service PANAJI, Aug 12 With the marine geophysical survey well under way, India could soon gain an additional 1 million square kilometres along its legal continental shelf (LCS). This would extend the country's exclusive economic zone to 350 nautical miles from the present 200 nautical miles off the coast, say officials of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO). The survey, being jointly conducted by scientists of the NIO and the National Geophysical Research Institute and coordinated by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) has been underway for the past four years. India which has upto 2009 to file its claim before the United Nation's Seabed Authority, expects to finish the survey within a year and file its claim by 2004. An extended floor zone (the claim can be made only on the sea floor and not the waters or its living resources) gives countries with the technological know-how a distinct advantage to explore gas hydrates. "We can map the whole area in detail and look closely at the mineral wealth there," the director of NIO Dr Ehrlich Desa told 'Deccan Herald'. India's leading marine research institute, the NIO is also in the process of developing an "intelligent" underwater robot in collaboration with Portugal's Institute of Robotics. Known technically as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) these small robotic sets will serve as "an extended arm of a ship" and will be programmed to measure underwater temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, the light field and so on, says Dr Desa. The AUV programme is just one among the many bilateral ventures undertaken by the NIO. There are four more in the pipeline with Portugal, which still has strong linguistic ties with Goa, 8 with Russia, some with France and the USA. Started purely as a government funded institute in 1966 under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the NIO is today self-sustaining with commissioned research, says Dr Desa. Last year it earned Rs 9 crore from research contracts undertaken for the government and Rs 5 crore came from the corporate sector. Among the on-going programmes, is the national gas hydrates project for the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) for Rs 3.5 crore and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for Rs 6.5 crore. The GAIL survey is being carried out on the west coast off Goa, and the ONGC one on the east coast off the Krishna-Godavari basin./ends =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
