Kapil Sibal

Chennai, March 3: Union minister Kapil Sibal today fished in choppy waters as he called on Tamil Nadu to find land for extensive oceanographic research which, he said, would be augmented by the proposed National Maritime University.

The university, originally planned for Tamil Nadu, has been referred to a parliamentary panel following objections from Left MPs who want it to be located in Bengal.

Sibal, who flagged off the new ocean research vehicle Sagar Nidhi, requested chief minister M. Karunanidhi to allot 250 acres of “seafront” area to the National Institute of Ocean Technology so that it could expand its work.

Sibal, the Union minister for science, technology and earth sciences, said the commissioning of the institute’s third vessel was an indication that the state was poised for a big leap in maritime research.

Hence, the minister said, he had asked Karunanidhi to consider a proposal by his ministry “to give us a large area of seafront in Tamil Nadu”.

In the same breath, Sibal said that since the Union cabinet had in principle given approval for the setting up “of a National Maritime University in Tamil Nadu”, this facility and the large seafront, “if given to us”, would together enable large-scale oceanographic research, including deep sea mining, and help bring more investments to the region.

Karunanidhi would not comment, but Sibal claimed the chief minister had agreed to consider the proposal.

The proposed university, said to be the pet project of shipping minister T.R. Baalu, ran into rough weather when MPs of the CPM and the DMK clashed in the Lok Sabha in March last year.

The Left members wanted the Centre to upgrade the 60-year-old Marine Engineering and Research Institute in Calcutta to a university.

The government, which was to have placed a Bill setting up the university, instead referred the matter to a parliamentary panel headed by CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury.

Asked how he could say the university would be located in Tamil Nadu when the decision was pending, Sibal said: “In principle, we have decided to set up the university. Only the location is yet to be decided.” But, he added, it would still be in a coastal state and close to the sea.

Political sources said the opposition to the marine university in Tamil Nadu has cost the Left Front dear as Baalu has ignored requests on a deep-sea port in Haldia, crucial for the petrochemical hub in Nayachar.

The shipping minister, who was present at the commissioning function of the Sagar Nidhi, refused to comment.

The Rs 232-crore Italian-built ship is a multi-purpose research vessel for technology services and demonstration. It will cater to various programmes like deep sea mining, ocean thermal energy conversion, remotely operated vehicles, underwater observation system and act as a support platform for various other ocean research activities.

The institute in Chennai had recently received the ship from Fincantieri’s Muggiano shipyard at Trieste in Italy.

Sagar Nidhi is also capable of launching “submersible capsules” that can take scientists to a depth of 6km below sea level.