About the Station-II

The station has many complexes. The main station is self contained and has living quarters for the winter team. It faces the north. Behind the station lies the generator and fuel complex. The summer camp lies to the north-east, about 1.50 metres from the main complex. It consists of a number of small huts and is not compact like the main station. Most of the laboratories are situated in the summer camp. The workshop area is located about half a kilometer away to the northwest. It is meant for repair and maintenance of pisten bully vehicles. The containers containing most of our non food supplies is also located close to the workshop. It is known as Kuber Bhandar. The pump house, called Trishna, is located in the Priyadarshani lake and is used for supplying water to the station.Dozer point is the point from where permament ice starts. The area beyond that is always covered with snow. It is about 1.5 km away. Previously, the pisten bullys, bulldozers and cranes had to be parked there, since beyond that the snow ends and there was no road from dozer point to maitri. It was all rocky. But now, a kutcha road has been constructed by removing all the rocks and boulders and leveling. So pisten bullys can come right upto the station. Sankalp Point is located about 5 km away, on the glacier. Its importance is that some instruments of the Snow antennae are situated there, and also, the living module for the convoys- Banjara is dropped off there when the convoy returns. The only other permanent station close to us is the Russian station, Novolazarevskaya. It is about 4 km away. Of late, the Antarctica Logistics Company International (ALCI) has started operating IL-76 flights from Cape Town to Dronning Maudland.The “airport” is called Novo Runway. They cater to all stations in Dronning Maudland and also the tourist traffic. The flights operate from November to March.