The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), working under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, has dedicated to the nation the Ballast Water Treatment Technologies – Test Facility (BWTT-TF), located at its seafront site at Pamanji and Vagarru villages in Tirupati district.
- Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, inaugurated the facility on Friday. He explained the threat posed by bio-invasive organisms transmitted through ballast water to the long coast of 7,516 km. along the Indian subcontinent, which has an enviable and strategic position in international shipping.
“Realising the effects of invasive species and its threat to marine biodiversity, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had taken efforts to address the transfer of invasive species and formulated guidelines to prevent the transfer of unwanted species through ballast water. We have developed this treatment and test facility to validate the ballast treatment equipment for certification by the Ministry of Shipping and IMO,” he explained.
Mr. Ravichandran later laid the foundation stone for the proposed Centre for Marine Microbial Repository under Deep Ocean Mission Vertical-3, NIOT Campus in Chittedu village, which is a unique and first-of-its-kind facility for long term storage of deep-sea microbes in India.
