Sudha Nambudiri KOCHI: The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is awaiting suggestions from national stakeholder institutions before giving clearance for the construction of country's first icebreaker research vessel for polar expeditions. New Delhi-based Grintex India Limited, shipping design consultants, has been identified by the National Centre for Antartic and Ocean Research to design the ship according to the requirements of the institutions involved in research in Antarctica and Arctic regions. The company specializes in the high technology areas like aviation, naval, maritime, biometrics, GPS SBAS, homeland security and satellite communication. "The iceclass research vessel, at a cost of Rs 440 crore, will make the country selfreliant and cut down the cost of chartering such vessels for scientific purposes. We will invite Express of Interest and global tenders soon," MoES advisor M Sudhakar told Express in Kochi. The icebreaker class-cum-supply vessel will be resourceful for Antarctica, Arctic, Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean operations throughout the year with state-of-the-art scientific equipment to undertake front-ranking oceanographic research. The vessel, which received the approval of the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs, will have accommodation facilities for 60 scientists and crew. Apart from this, it will also have a flight deck for helicopter, adequate deck and laboratory space with requisite instrumentation facilities and equipment. These expeditions are presently being undertaken with the help of icebreaker vessels that are chartered annually. India's maiden expedition to the South Pole was successfully completed last week when the team headed by Dr Rasik Ravindra reached Maitri, India's station at Antarctica, after spending three days at the South Pole. With more than 150 new lake formations in the Antarctica ice sheet, scientists, including those from India's National Physical Research Laboratory, are carrying out studies on the high carbon monoxide concentration during the sunlight period in Antarctica, fuelling fears of global warming in the icecontinent. Meanwhile, Ministry of Earth Sciences officials are also working to replace two ageing ocean and fisheries research vessels Sagar Kanya and Sagar Sampada with modern ones. "Sagar Sampada can run for five more years, after that I think we should slowly ease her out from long cruises," officials added.