GOVT EMPLOYEES TO ATTEMPT MT EVEREST

A team of 20 government employees, including a woman, led by secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Leelamani Poudyal is preparing to climb Mt Everest – the tallest peak on earth – next season.

Poudel made up his mind to climb Mt Everest while he was working with Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation two years ago.

The team will take basic and advance mountaineering training this year and the coming year and organize an expedition to Everest in spring next year.

The employees have already taken climbing training at the artificial climbing wall of Pasang Lhamu Mountaineering Federation and rock climbing at Nagarjun. They left for Rasuwa district in the third week of June to climb Yala Peak (5,550m).

A total of 49 government employees had applied at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation to climb Everest. Under secretary Baburam Bhandari said they had selected 20 employees through different tests.

The team led by Poudel has joint secretary Laxman Prasad Bhattarai, Durga Prasad Bhattarai, section officer Muktiram Rijal and office assistant Rukmini Gurung, among others.

The government has exempted permit fee for the expedition and is also bearing all expenses of the expedition. He said the government will allocate a budget of Rs 30 million for the expedition in the upcoming budget.

Source TAAN-enews 22 June 2010