India is building its first manned submersible to study the deep sea and conduct a biodiversity assessment, an announcement that comes days after the country successfully landed a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole.

The project is another sign that India wants to increase its clout globally as an innovator in science and technology, particularly in space and other unexplored regions.

Next is “Samudrayaan”
This is ‘MATSYA 6000′ submersible under construction at National Institute of Ocean Technology at Chennai. India’s first manned Deep Ocean Mission ‘Samudrayaan’ plans to send 3 humans in 6-km ocean depth in a submersible, to study the deep sea resources and… pic.twitter.com/aHuR56esi7

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) September 11, 2023

Kiren Rijiju, the Earth Sciences Minister, posted photos of the submersible on X, saying the mission will send three people to a depth of six kilometres (about four miles), and “will not disturb the ocean ecosystem.”

India Today reported that the country expects to complete building the submersible by 2026, and it will have a similar design to Oceangate’s Titan, which went missing near the Titanic’s resting place in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The US Coast Guard later announced the submersible underwent a catastrophic implosion that killed all five people on board, who were on an expedition to see the Titanic’s wreckage. The news forced OceanGate to suspend all explorations and business operations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

India is building a submersible to take a three-member crew on a manned ocean exploration mission – India’s first. The spherical vessel is being built by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai.

Here are five points on Matsya 6000: