Kathmandu: Under the guidance of the Department of Tourism (DoT), Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) is preparing to launch a profile of 476 peaks in the country 2020.
In 2016, the Department of Tourism (DoT) transferred the responsibility of producing profiles with information at the summit, including route, itinerary, peak height, district, area, the social condition of the area, and budget details for climbing the summit to the NMA.
General secretary of NMA, Mr. Kul Bahadur Gerung said-” We have sent a letter to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation seeking its permission to officially launch the profiles of the peaks. Hopefully, we will be allowed to officially launch the peak profiles at the beginning of 2020 so that climbers can ascend the peaks in the spring season.”He added the newly prepared profiles of peaks will comprise all the details of geography, social and economic along with the latest pictures. The concept of peak profiling aimed to set up a scientific database of Nepal’s peaks. It is also expected that the peak profiles will help attract climbers to attempt virgin peaks of the country.
In the last financial year, the department had refused to release the planned budget of Rs 5 million. At that time, the department was supposed to issue a budget only after completing the profiling of the NMA.
“The work has now been completed and is under revision before its official launch. The department had allocated Rs 3 million to NMA for the project in the fiscal year 2016-17 and Rs 2 million in fiscal 2017-18”- Gurung said.
The government started work on the project in 2014, and in 2016 Department of Tourism (DoT) formed a sub-committee for market studies.
According to the Department of Tourism (DoT), out of the 476 mountains, the climb is suitable for climbing up to 5,800 meters, while the government has opened 414 mountain Himalayas for climbing activities at the time.
Source: THT
