The Coastal Ocean Monitoring & Prediction System (COMAPS) programme is being undertaken with the help of 11 institutions situated along the coastline of the country. Since 1991, these institutions have been collecting sea water, sediment and biological samples engaging small fishing trawlers, which have an endurance of less than 14 hours. A few parameters like nitrate, phosphate, etc will have to be analysed immediately after the collection of the samples. The samples collected are brought back to the shore to rush to the laboratory for analysis of the mandatory parameters. This is a time consuming and laborious procedure. Sampling locations were limited to areas where trawlers are available with treating facilities.

In order to overcome the shortcomings, the DOD has acquired two Coastal Research Vessels namely Sagar Purvi and Sagar Paschimi. They are of 30 metres in length. These vessels will facilitate collection of samples at all desired locations. One wet laboratory along with sample processing equipment like filtration units, autoclave, hot air oven, hot plate etc. and an instrumentation laboratory with analytical instruments like the Auto Analyser, Spectroflurometer, Spectrophotometer, etc. have been built in on board the vessel, for onboard analysis of mandatory parameters. Two hydrographic winches, one coring which and one trawl winch are available for collection of water, sediment and biological sample. The vessels have an endurance of 10 days with accommodation facilities for 7 scientists and 11 crew members. The vessels have modern satellite communicati;n facilities. The cost of each vessel is Rs.5.1 crore.

The vessels have been indigenously designed by the National Ship Design & Research Centre, Visakhapatnam and the vessel named Sagar Paschimi was built by Ms Alcock Ashdown, Gujarat and Sagar Purvi was built by Corporated Consultancy & Engineering Enterprise (Pvt.) Ltd., Calcutta. Sagar Paschimi was commissioned on 6th Nov., 1996 and the Sagar Purvi on 19th Dece., 1996. The vessels are being managed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Madras, a technical arm of the DOD.