INS Sagardhwani, a marine acoustic research ship owned by the DRDO lab, Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, and operated by the Navy, has set sail for a scientific venture called ‘Marine and Allied Interdisciplinary Training and Research Initiative (MAITRI)’.
The ship was jointly flagged off by Vice Admiral A.K. Chawla, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command and G. Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of DRDO, at the Naval Base here on Thursday.
The mission, according to a press release, is a step towards enhancing research and strengthening relationships with South East Asian countries and is therefore called Sagar Maitri. The focus will be on data collection from the entire North Indian Ocean, mainly on the Andaman Sea and adjoining seas, and establishing long-term collaboration with eight IOR countries in the field of ‘Ocean Research and Development’.
INS Sagardhwani was built by GRSE Ltd., Kolkata, and commissioned in1994. The ship will be celebrating its silver jubilee on July 30 while on the voyage. It will visit Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia and will be initiating collaborative research programmes with selected institutes in these countries.