India’s third Antartica research station to open in 2012
By IANSTuesday, January 11, 2011
NEW DELHI - Bharati, India’s third state-of-the-art research station at Antarctica, will be operational by 2012, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said Tuesday.
Bharati will have all the modern facilities and will have an Earth Station for transmission of real time data from the polar region to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The work on the research station coming up at Lasemann Hills, east Antarctica, started in 2008 and will be completed by 2012.
About 60 percent of the work has been completed and it will be operational by 2012. The research station will be completed in a record five years time, Sibal told reporters here.
India will establish an Earth Station at the research station which will provide data to scientists in India.
Earth Station will transmit data to scientists within 45 minutes which now takes about two-three days, said Shailesh Nayak, secretary in the ministry.
About 35 people - 25 scientists and 10 people from logistics - will be permanently stationed at the station.
India’s first station in Antarctica ‘Gangotri’ was established in 1983-84. It served the Indian team till 1989, when it sank into snow due to excessive snow accumulation.
‘Maitri’, the second research station in Antarctica established in 1988, has been housing expedition members since then.
India also has a research station ‘Himadri’ at the Arctic, which was established in 2008.
