IANS

Panaji, Feb 16: India's claim for an extended maritime economic zone in the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal is pending before a United Nations agency, Union Minister for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chauhan said Monday.

Speaking at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) near Panaji, Chauhan said that "it was only a matter of time" before the claim would be validated.

"We have laid claim to 0.6 million sq km of the sea bed beyond the exclusive economic zones both in the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal," Chauhan, who is on a one-day visit to Goa said.

Chauhan said that the extended economic zones would be charted out on the basis of the sediments carried into the sea by the Indus river in the Arabian sea and the Ganges into the Bay of Bengal.

Saying that the ocean was a future resource for minerals and energy, Chauhan underlined the importance of oceanic research.

Chauhan also ruled out the possibility of tourism as far as the Antarctic continent was concerned, despite India managing two elaborate stations on the southern ice cap.

"Our third station named Bharti will be started sometime in 2012. We already have two stations there. Tourism is possible, but we should not make money out of these operations for tourism," Chauhan said, adding that the government of India was committed to oceanic and Antarctic research.