Hapag-Lloyd facilitates shipment of Mobile Container Lab to India

HAMBURG : In an exciting collaboration with the Hamburg University, Hapag-Lloyd has successfully shipped a Mobile Container Lab to India. This innovative lab, designed for the research of invaluable manuscripts worldwide, embarked on its journey aboard our vessel “Prague Express” on April 7th. Over the next 18 months, it will be stationed in India to analyze palm-leaf manuscripts that are part of the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage.

Stored in Puducherry, southern India, these manuscripts – about 12,000 in total – date back to the late 18th and 19th centuries. They represent some of the oldest surviving records of their kind, offering historians critical insights into religion, history, astrology, and medicine from a written culture that spans two millennia and one of the world’s most significant literary traditions.

Despite their importance, the origins of these manuscripts are often unknown, leaving many questions about their history unanswered. To address this, researchers from Hamburg University and Indian scientists will collaborate in this unique Container Lab. The lab comprises seven containers: five housing laboratory rooms, one containing power generators and water supplies, and another serving as storage. On 3 June, our containership “Prague Express” safely delivered the Lab Containers to the Kattupalli port in Chennai, marking the start of this ambitious research project.