Garuda Vasudha Advanced Light Helicopter of Geological Survey of India launched

Minister of Mines, Dinsha Patel launched the Advanced Light Helicopter named Garuda Vasudha of Geological Survey of India from the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Bangalore on 23 January 2014. The Garuda Vasudha a Dhruv category built by HAL dedicated to the nation.

The Ministry  also laid the foundation stone of a Centre of Excellence Laboratory building of GSI at Bangalore, worth of 42 crore.
Garuda Vasudha of GSI is equipped with Heliborne Geophysical Survey System (HGSS) comprised of four aerogeophysical sensors namely

• Time Domain Electromagnetic
• Magnetic
• Spectrometric
• Gravimetric along with Data Acquisition Systems procured from M/s Pico Envirotec Inc, Canada

The installation and integration of the HGSS has been carried out at HAL and total cost of HGSS is about 60 crore rupees.

Garuda Vasudha

• Garuda Vasudha is used for extensive surveys by the GSI for locating hidden mineral health.
• Heliborne Geophysical Survey System (HGSS) will bolster the probing prowess of aerogeophysical surveys for locating concealed and deep seated mineral deposits of the country.
• Remote Sensing and Aerial Survey Wing of Geological Survey of India will be using both the aerial and heliborne survey together to locate mineral resources which will fulfill the rising demands.

Centre of Excellence

Establishment of Centre of Excellence at Bangalore is to create a highly modernized and sophisticatedly equipped state-of-the-art centre for carrying out diverse geoscientific studies.

At present GSI has three Centres of Excellence in the cities of Faridabad, Kolkata and Bangalore.

The Centre will be equipped with

• 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 have facilities for Fluid inclusion studies, petrological studies, and Geophysical data analyses. It will give a huge fillip to the laboratory support for mineral exploration and research.