Ballast Water Treatment test facility inaugurated in Vakadu mandal

Tirupati: The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has established a Ballast Water Treatment Technologies – test facility (BWTT-TF) in NIOT sea front site at Pamanji and Vagarru villages of Vakadu mandal in Tirupati district. This facility is designed to ensure compliance with international regulations of Ballast Water Convention 2004 for testing and validation of Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS) as per D2-discharge regulations of International Maritime Organization (IMO).

This facility is the unique and only one of its kind in the South East Asia and tropical region, which provides innovative solutions for development and testing of ballast water treatment technologies, thus contributing to the reduction of invasive aquatic species and enhancing global marine biodiversity.

The facility was inaugurated on Friday by Dr M Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences in the presence of Tirupati district Collector Dr S Venkateswar, Director of NIOT Prof Balaji Ramakrishnan, Programme Director (MoES) Dr Vijaya Kumar and Chief Engineer, CPWD M Venkateswara Rao. Addressing the inauguration event, Dr Ravichandran said that the Indian subcontinent with a coast of 7,516 km has a strategic position in international shipping and accompanied the threat of bio-invasive organisms transmitted through ballast water.

This facility will offer cutting-edge solutions for testing and validation of Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS) as per D2-discharge regulations of IMO and revalidation of already approved BWTS. This centre will add a new dimension to India’s Ballast water management and reduction of invasive aquatic species and augmenting global marine biodiversity.

Ravichandran also laid the foundation stone for the proposed Centre for Marine Microbial Repository under Deep Ocean Mission vertical-3, NIOT campus in Chittedu of Tirupati district. This facility will be a unique state-of-the-art facility first of its kind exclusively for long term storage of deep sea microbes in India.