In March 1983, the Department of Ocean Development acquired an oceanographic research vessel, "Sagar Kanya" designed and built in the then Federal Republic of Germany. This ship is one of the most sophisticated and highly advanced research vessels in the world. It has full capabilities to work in the field of physical and chemical oceanography, meteorology, marine geology, geophysics, marine biology, etc.
The ship is equipped with the most modern and sophisticated equipment. Propelled by twin-screw, each connected to a tandem - type electric propulsion motor, the ship is equipped with fin stabilisers, two fin rudders and one bow thruster to achieve the best possible manoeuvrability and stability under various sea conditions. It has an endurance of 45 days and can cover more than 10,000 sea miles during its cruises.
There are four motor driven fibre glass boats for life saving and survey. Diesel alternator sets provide electric power for the ship's system. An automatic power supply system is used to monitor and control all diesel alternator sets. All computer systems and the sensor instruments are inter-connected.

The ship can accommodate 91 persons comprising 59 ship's officers and crew, 23 scientist, one doctor and 8 technicians.
There are two galleys, two pantries and three mess-rooms and a conference room on board.
For emergency, there is a hospital and medical attendance room.
The ship has three recreation rooms for officers, scientists and crew. Besides seven TV sets, one video recorder is also installed for entertainment.

The vessel has 13 laboratories equipped with modern equipment for multi-disciplinary oceanographic research.

Laboratories
The ship has 13 laboratories. They are fully equipped with basic equipment for oceanographic research in geology, geophysics, meteorology, chemical oceanography, physical oceanography and marine biology.
The wet laboratory is provided for biological work and for the dry laboratory is for physical oceanography. The chemical, geophysical, multipurpose and electronic laboratories are situated on the second deck. The photo laboratory, print room, chart and drawing room and computers are on the main deck. All the laboratories are air conditioned and are supplied with a compressed air connector. Some of the laboratories are additionally equipped with gases like hydrogen for balloons, acetylene and laughing gas for the AAS instruments in the multipurpose laboratory.

Meteorological Laboratory
The ship has two meteorological laboratories for exploration of the water phenomenon especially the monsoon and the tropical cyclones. The values relating to wind, air and solar radiation are determined by sensors and gathered in the meteorological data logging station. The ship is also provided with meteorological buoys and balloons to collect data. The computer provides data print-outs in the form of tables. There is an APT receiver in this laboratory which receives facsimiles transmitted by satellite.
The meteorological Lab-II lodges radome and the wind weather radar controls. The radome had an 18 ft radar mirror which transmits and receives the signals, over a range of 400 km. It reflects all kinds of precipitation prevailing in the atmosphere, measure clouds and precipitation densities.

Wet and Dry laboratories at port side
The water samples collected are brought to the wet laboratory for bottling and preliminary analysis. Nansen type water samplers, Niskin sampling bottles, deep sea reversing thermometers, surface bucket thermometers, digital and pocket pH meter, drying oven, drop messengers, hydrocarbon water samples, field fluorimeter, etc., are available in this laboratory. Biological, chemical and some physical research work are also carried out in this laboratory.

Photo laboratory and print room
This laboratory has a separate dark room for development and processing and it has the required instruments including enlarger, exposure time clock, drying press, refrigerator, span wires for drying films and a radiograph.

Wet and dry laboratories at main deck
The wet and dry laboratories on the main deck starboard are for geological and geophysical work. The wet laboratory is provided with deep freezer, drier, rock saw and liner saw to crush, dry and weigh the geological samples and sediments.

Multipurpose laboratory
It is the largest laboratory on board. An atomic absorption spectrophotometer is installed in this laboratory for quantitative analysis of sea water, solids, sediments and manganese nodules.

Electronic laboratory
It is used for maintenance and repair of all the scientific equipment. Electronic components and testing and measuring instruments are also stored in this laboratory.

Geophysical laboratory
It has a 24 channel seismic equipment for collecting seismic data on the structure of the seabed. This is one of the most complicated and expensive installations on board. The pressure waves and sound waves are received and recorded in this laboratory. Marine gravitymeter interphased with proton magnetometer and the computer makes the system very advanced for the recording of gravity data.

Chemistry laboratory
It has a special air-conditioning plant to keep the air clean, a Milli-Q-System for chemically pure water, a UV oxidation unit and a quartz distillation unit. There are filtering devices and pH meters for measuring the hydrogen ion concentration in the water samples, salinometer and thermosalinograph for measuring the salinity of sea water, spectro-fluorimeter and UV spectrometer for quantitative measurements of the elements and compounds in the water samples.

Navigational
Sagar Kanya is equipped with the most advanced navigational and scientific equipment. Its operation centre is the bridge where all instruments necessary for manoeuvering and navigation are located. These equipments include a visual radio direction receiver, two echo sounders, an electro magnetic speed log, a gyro compass and electronic automatic pilot, etc. It has satellite navigation systems with a navigation computer interfaced for research data.

Communication
A radio station, complete with marine radio, telex and teleprinter equipment is available. There is a combined intercom talk back system with 30 extensions and an automatic telephone system with 50 extensions

Infrastructural
Sagar Kanya is equipped with various lifting facilities and several winches of different kinds. Gallows , crane and jibboom are designed so as to be able to operate clearly from the ship's side.