Panaji, December 19, 2005 (UNI)

The silver jubilee Indian expedition to the icy continent of Antarctica was formally lauched today at a function held at Vasco-da-Gama.

The expedition team is led by Mr L Prem Kishore and comprises 23 winter members and 27 summer members, drawn from 24 research institutes, represented by Geological Survey of India, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories, Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Force, Defence organisation, DRDO and universities.

This time there are two students also being inducted for the first time, under students participation scheme introduced for this expedition.

Rear Admiral A K Handa, the Chairman and Managing director, Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL), who was the chief guest on the occasion, appreciated the national efforts in Antarctica in the field of science and research and complimented all the team members for their untiring efforts for the furtherance of science.

Mr Kishore, a geophysicist by profession, assured to fulfil all the scientific and logistics objectives assigned to him and his team.

The 25th Indian scientific expedition to Antarctica will fly to Capetown to board the expedition vessel and will finally sail from Cape Town onboard 'MV Paardeberg' of M/S Dynamic Shipping Services(DSS) Ltd, Israel on December 22, under the overall coordination and supervision of the National Centre for Antarctica and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa.

The summer component of the 25th expedition and winter component of 24th expedition is expected to return to India by March-April next year.