Monti Rajkhowa, executive engineer of production divison of ONGC, Assam successfully summited Mount Kanchenjunga with the ONGC team on Sunday morning.
Five members out of the 15 member ONGC Mt. Kanchenjunga expedition team, successfully summated the third largest peak in the world at about 8.15am Nepal time on May 20.
The five members are – Nirmal Kumar, Monti Rajkhowa, Pankaj Joshi, Gaurav Kadian, Palkesh G. Kalma.
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The second group of four ONGC employees and one Indian Mountaineering Foundation member summitted the peak on Monday.
With this, ONGC, whose team also scaled the Everest last year, becomes the first Corporate in the world to accomplish this difficult and unique feat, an ONGC Corporate Communications press release said.
The team attempted the summit in two groups, with the first group, comprising of expedition leader Nirmal Kumar, Pankaj Joshi, Monti Rajkhowa, Palkesh G Kalma and Gaurav Kadian scaling the peak at around 8:15 am Nepal Time on May 20, and the second group comprising of Yogender Garbiyal, Rahul Jarngal, Akash Bavariya, Surendra Prasad Jakhmola and Indian Mountaineering Foundation’s Sheetal scaling the peak on Monday at around 3:40 am Nepal Time.
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The Kanchenjunga expedition team had three women members, out of which ONGCian Monti Rajkhowa and IMF’s Sheetal successfully summited the peak while Shipra Batra, another ONGCian accompanied the team as support staff. Monti Rajkhowa was also part of the Everest expedition last year, scaling up to camp 4 at an altitude of 8000 m.
The team led by Nirmal Kumar had climbed the mountain, considered to be the most difficult and challenging from the south east route of Nepal.
The mountain which is 8586 feet, lies in the Nepal-India border in Sikkim state.
Last year an 11 member team of ONGC had climbed Mount Everest setting a record in which a corporate team had for the first time climbed the highest mountain in the world.
Monty Rajkhowa who had also been in the team to Mount Everest, had gone up to base camp 4. Those who reached the peak were Nirmal Kumar, Yogendra Garbiyal and Rahul Jarngal. Surendra Singh Tomar had gone up to base camp 3.
Congratulating the team on its momentous feat, ONGC CMD Shashi Shanker said, “This is a unique achievement which will inspire all ONGCians. ONGC continues its tradition of creating new milestones and scaling new heights.”
ONGC Director (HR) D D Misra, who is the driving force behind this expedition, hailed the team and said “This is a proud moment for ONGC, a date to be earmarked. A significant milestone has been achieved, scripting a new history in our annals. Kudos to the team on this achievement.”
Sharing their experience on this momentous occasion, the team said, “We have done it again. Summited the most difficult mountain, Kanchenjunga. We dedicate this success to all the martyrs of ONGC who laid down their lives in the service of the nation. We feel privileged to take the ONGC dream to the top of the world again.”
ONGC, as part of its unique HR initiative, encourages mountaineering among its employees, as it is one of the greatest team building activities. The country’s largest oil and gas explorer also inculcates the spirit of adventure among its workforce on an ongoing basis.
The team to the Kanchenjunga expedition had been flagged off by Union Minister for Oil and petroleum gas and skill development and entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan at New Delhi on April 2.