4 member NIMAS team to undertake cycling expedition to 6 south east Asian nations

The expedition will cover 5,300km in over 50 days Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia before culminating at the INA War Memorial, Esplanade Park in Singapore on March 8.

A four-member team of Dirang-based National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (NIMAS) in Arunachal Pradesh will begin a 6-nation cycling expedition from Hanoi in Vietnam on Wednesday to commemorate the government's 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' initiative.

The expedition will cover 5,300km in over 50 days across Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia before culminating at the INA War Memorial, Esplanade Park in Singapore on March 8. The team, which arrived at Hanoi on January 16, acclimatised themselves at Hanoi before setting off on the expedition. 

The expedition is being carried out after approval from Defence Minister Rajanth Singh in the Institute's executive council meeting last year. Singh is the chairman of the institute. 

Additional Secretary in the defence ministry flagged off the expedition from New Delhi on January 16 in the presence of the NIMAS Secretary. The four-member team is led by Col RS Jamwal. This is the first-of-its-kind cycling expedition traversing 6 South East Asian Nations. 

At Singapore, they will pay tributes to all the warriors who laid down their lives for the country's independence from the British colonial regime at the INA Memorial. It is notable that the NIMAS team created a record in the India Book of Records recently by becoming the first-of-its-kind expedition, covering all seven northeastern states by cycle. 

It also climbed the highest point of all 7 states of the northeast region. The expedition cycled 1098 km through Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura and interacted with youth associations of these states.