Bengal build enters service

Ship & Boat International: eNews June 2020

India’s National Institute of Ocean Technology(NIOT) has commissioned Sagar Anveshika, the second of a pair of 43m, DP system-equipped sisters built in West Bengal. The vessels were conceived for NIOT's shallow-water operations along the entire Indian coast, conducting campaigns for the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and also as platforms for offshore research. Both are equipped for bathymetric surveys, surface water quality monitoring, underwater observation and exploration, and other missions.    

Titagarh Wagons landed the build contract in February 2017. Managing factories in India and Italy, Titagarh’s cornerstone business is the design and manufacture of freight and passenger rolling stock, locomotives, rail traction motors and other electrical equipment. The company diversified into shipbuilding through its 2012 acquisition of Corporated Shipyard. Located on the river system close to Kolkata, the yard has an annual steel processing capacity of more than 10,000tonnes, and can build vessels up to 125m in length. Since becoming part of Titagarh, output has included small naval support vessels, tugs, passenger ferries and inland waterway vessels.  

Sagar Anveshika was launched four months ahead of schedule in September 2019, when the first of the pair, Sagar Tara, was handed over. Sagar Anveshika was commissioned in February this year, by which time Saga Tara had already completed 15 scientific cruises. Each vessel accommodates 20 crew and scientists for cruise voyage durations of up to 15 days.

Primary power is provided by two Scania 16-litre diesels, generating a combined 1,104kW for a speed of 12knots, with manoeuvring and position-keeping facilitated by a retractable bow thruster. The auxiliary outfit comprises three 160kW generators. Tenets of the hydrodynamic and engineering design phases included seakeeping performance, stability and extremely low noise and vibration levels.

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Sagar Anveshika