Shri Dinsha Patel, Minister of Mines, dedicated the Advanced Light Helicopter “Garuda Vasudha” of Geological Survey of India equipped with Heliborne Geophysical Survey System (HGSS) to the nation here today through video-conferencing. The helicopter was launched from the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) Complex, Bangalore. The Minister also laid the foundation stone of a Centre of Excellence Laboratory building of GSI at its Bangalore complex at a cost of Rs. 42 crore..
The Garuda Vasudha a ‘Dhruv’ category helicopter has been indigenously built by HAL and the HGSS comprising four aerogeophysical sensors, namely Time Domain Electromagnetic, Magnetic, Spectrometric and Gravimetric alongwith Data Acquisition Systems, have been procured from M/s Pico Envirotec Inc., Canada. The installation and integration of the sensor system has been carried out at HAL. The total cost of the HGSS is about Rs. 63 crores.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Dinsha Patel, Minister of Mines, expressed his pleasure in dedicating Garuda Vasudha which would be used for extensive surveys by the GSI for locating hidden mineral health.
The Minister further added that the state-of-the-art Heliborne Geophysical Survey System (HGSS) will bolster the probing prowess of aerogeophysical surveys for locating concealed and deep seated mineral deposits of the country.
The Minister said that the moment has come when Remote Sensing and Aerial Survey Wing of Geological Survey of India would be using both the aerial and heliborne survey together and would be effectively used in locating mineral resources which is going to fulfill rising demands and will also result in saving valuable foreign exchange.
Praising GSI for its Centre of Excellence, the Minister said that the establishment of one more Centre of Excellence at Bangalore is part of the modernization Program. The objective is to create a highly modernized and sophiticatedly equipped state-of-the-art centre for carrying out diverse geoscientific studies. The Centre will be equiped Electron Probe Micro Analyser, In Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, X-ray fluorescence Spectrometer, X-ray diffraction spectrometer, Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic absorption spectrometer. The Centre will further have facilities for Fluid inclusion studies, petrological studies, Geophysical data analyses etc. The centre of excellence will give a huge fillip to the laboratory support for mineral exploration and research.
At present GSI has three Centres of Excellence in the cities of Faridabad, Kolkata and Bangalore. On the occasion two brochure ‘ Remote Sensing and Aerial Surveys and Heliborne Geophysical Survey System were released.
Present during the videoconferencing were senior officers from the Ministry of Mines and Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence and GSI.
