KATHMANDU, Nepal- Chief Secretary of the government of Nepal Lilamani Paudyal has pointed out the need to establish tourism and civil aviation branch office at the Everest Base Camp to maintain Mt. Everest expeditions.
Paudyal, who was the coordinator of the First Civil Servant Everest Expedition Team that scaled the world’s highest peak last year, opined that the branch office at the base camp should be equipped with a rescue team and altitude doctors.
“It is almost delayed to open an office at the Everest base which will maintain records of the climbers and their belongings,” chief secretary Paudyal said, adding, “whoever failed to bring their belongings back while returning from climbing would be fined and their deposit would be seized to bring the items back by others”. According to him, the process would make expedition organizing agency free from any tensions.
In another context, stating that the vibration so caused by the hovering sound of helicopters have increased the chances of ice-fall and avalanches, Paudyal urges to control such activities except in the cases of emergency and rescue operations.
Chief at the Mountaineering Section, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Purna Chandra Bhattarai said, “despite our richness in the number of mountains, we aren’t able to achieve the success du e to lack of trained manpower and adequate policies”.
Stating that four thousand and 25 national and international climbers have climbed the Mt. Everest successfully in 60 years time since it was first climbed by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953, Bhattarai said, “We all must work from our respective posts and quarters to keep the Himalayas forever”.
