October 15, SeaNews

FESCO Transport Group and the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research of the Indian Ministry of Geosciences (NCPOR) have renewed the contract to provide Indian Antarctic research stations in 2020-2021. It will be the third expedition to be held under a contract with NCPOR, FESCO told SeaNews.

The icebreaking transport vessel ‘Vasily Golovnin’ will start a new voyage from Cape Town at the end of December 2020. The vessel will deliver general cargo, foodstuffs and fuel to the Indian Antarctic stations “Bharati” and “Maitri“, remove decommissioned equipment, household and technical waste. The expedition will also include NCPOR scientists onboard the ship. Two helicopters and a self-propelled barge will operate from the ‘Vasily Golovnin’ to deliver cargo to the shore. The voyage will last until April 2021.

‘Vasily Golovnin’, the diesel-electric supply ship operated by FESCO transport group has successfully completed the unloading of equipment at the Indian Antarctic research station ‘Bharati’. During her last Antarctic voyage (December 2019-April 2020), ‘Vasily Golovnin’ delivered supplies and new shift of polar explorers to both Indian Antarctic stations, and took appr. 200 tons of accumulated waste and decommissioned equipment for transportation to the place of utilization. The ship also delivered 250 tons of cargo to the Belgian scientific station ‘Princess Elisabeth Antarctica’ during that voyage.

Source: https://seanews.ru/2020/10/15/ru-ledokol-fesco-snova-idet-v-antarktidu/