The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous Institute under Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is establishing an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant with a capacity of 65kW in Kavaratti Lakshadweep and work has just commenced. This plant will power the Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) based desalination plant for conversion of Sea water into Potable water. The capacity of this LTTD plant is 1 lakh litre of potable water per day.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched the Deep Ocean Mission (DOM). The details of deep sea mining, underwater robotics, development ofocean climate change advisory services and technological innovations forexploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity under DOM in the next fewyears:

• Design, and development of prototype manned Submersible rated for 6000 metre water depth, which includes technologies for underwater vehicle and underwater robotics

• Design and Development of technologies for mining of deep sea resources like Polymetallic nodules from the Central Indian Ocean at a water depth of 5500 m.
• Inventorization, archival of specimens and development of DNA bank of deep-sea fauna of Northern Indian Ocean through systematic sampling using Remotely Operated Vehicle.
• Development of Ocean Climate Change Advisory Services for climate risk assessment due to sea level rise, cyclone intensity and frequency, storm surges and wind waves, biogeochemistry, and changing harmful algal blooms in the coastal waters of India.

This information was given by the Minister of State (I/C) for M/o Earth Sciences and M/o Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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