An incredible journey that few have had the privilege to experience. Imagine making your mark on history as you travel by ski the last 60 nautical miles, to reach the most southerly point on earth - the Geographic South Pole where the ice is almost 3000m thick and feel beneath your feet 360 lines of longitude meeting.

The Indian Navy has taken yet another extreme challenge as the next major adventure sport activity - Ski traverse to the South Pole during Dec 06 – Jan 07 ( termed Mission Dakshin Dhruv 2006 ). It would indeed be a daunting expedition and may well achieve records heralding India and the Indian Navy into the forefronts of the adventure world.

The severity of the task would call for the highest standards of physical fitness, mental and moral strength, determination, courage, endurance, a never say die spirit and, above all, a perfect teamwork. Thus, this expedition would involve all the laudable attributes that are required to be developed amongst men in uniform.

The dare devil team has Satyabrata Dam, KS Balaji, Avinash Khajuria, Ajay Sharma, Raj Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Vikas Kumar, Brijendra Singh, Sonam Tamchos and Manoj Vats. They are already at Chile's Port Town of Punta Arenas raving to cross the Drake Passage to land at the Patriot Hill Base Camp.

When the team unfurls the flags of India and the Indian Navy at South Pole, it will be a matter of pride for Birla Institute of Technology and Science "BITS", Pilani ( Rajasthan ) India as the team Member Raj Kumar is a proud alumnus of this institute and has the rare combination of being a submariner, mountaineer and sky diver.

- End -

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani is a Leading University in India offering degrees in Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Sciences, Engineering Technology, Information Systems, General Studies, Finance, etc presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa campuses and in the near future at Hyderabad campus. BITS Pilani also offers an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a vast spectrum of Indian corporates.