New, improved technology is set to be deployed by Texas-based marine robotics company Ocean Infinity in the fresh search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Malaysia's government has given final approval for new investigation, which will be conducted on a "no-find, no-fee" basis, meaning the company receiving payment only if wreckage is discovered.
As it stands, cabinet ministers have agreed to terms and conditions for the contract to resume seabed search operations, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a statement on Wednesday.
The approval comes three months after Malaysia gave the nod in principle to plans for a fresh search.
The company has said to have enhanced its technology since 2018, Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett has claimed
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Ocean Infinity will search a new 15,000-square-kilometre area in the southern Indian Ocean where the aircraft is believed to have crashed.
The Texas-based company will be paid $70million - but only if it succeeds in finding the wreckage of the Boeing 777 which disappeared over a decade ago.
Loke has confirmed that his ministry will sign a contract with the robotics firm soon but did not provide any further details on the terms and conditions of such a deal.
It has been claimed that the firm has sent a search vessel to the site already.
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The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals.
The aircraft was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared mysteriously.
Before its location was lost entirely, satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean.
Since the devastation, several searches have failed to yield productive results, including an expensive multinational search.
Since the aircraft's disappearance, debris has washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands but another private search by Ocean Infinity in 2018 found nothing more.
Debris of the aircraft washed ashore on the east African coast and Indian Ocean islands
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Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Punkett earlier this year is believed to have said the company had improved its technology since 2018.
Since, the firm has been working with experts to analyse data and has now narrowed the search area to the most likely site.
The final approval for the new search comes more than a decade after the aircraft's disappearance and Ocean Infinity's renewed effort represents the most significant search attempt in years.
"The Government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the passengers of flight MH370," Loke said in his statement.
