INS DARSHAK ON GOODWILL VISIT FOR JOINT SURVEY OFF MAURITIUS

            Indian Naval Ship (INS) Darshak is presently on a month long deployment from 03 Dec 16 to 03 Jan 16 in Mauritius to undertake Joint Hydrographic Survey off Mauritian waters under the aegis of MoU between the Government of India and Republic of Mauritius on Hydrographic Cooperation.

2. INS Darshak ,'The Guide', is the eighth survey vessel of the Indian Navy and first of the new Darshak class of ships. It is state of the art surveying equipment like Multi-beam Sonars, Side Scan Sonars, Differential GPS, Current Meter, Sound Velocity Profilers and other optical instruments. The ship carries an integral helicopter and four fully equipped Survey Crafts which would be extensively deployed for collection of bathymetric data.

3. The main objective of the deployment of INS Darshak is to collect data for publishing two new charts as per enhanced charting scheme presently being executed by the National Hydrographic Office, India. The first chart covering entire mainland Mauritius including islands in the north will be based on latest bathymetric data collected by Indian Ships over the years. The chart will be of immense value to various stakeholders, especially those planning development activities along the Eastern part of the island, where until now, very limited data was available. The second chart covers the islands north of mainland Mauritius, Grand bay and adjacent areas. It would be useful for tourism industry and pleasure crafts operating in these areas.

4. Apart from surveys for nautical charting, the ship will carry out data collection for scientific research off Agalega and North East of Mauritius, Aquaculture Project Site off Anse La Raie and Deep Ocean Water Applications (DOWA) project.

5. Officials of Government of Mauritius from various organizations related to ocean matters are participating in the survey and will benefit from the training during ship’s three sea sorties. The INS Darshak will also carry out Outer Island Support for St. Brandon and Agalega Island on its return journey to India in January 2017.

06 December 2016

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