New Delhi: Federal Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjeet Singh on March 9 flagged off the first batch of girl members of National Cadet Corps (NCC) who are an Everest expedition.
The team comprises ten girl cadets, who are being led by Colonel Gaurav Karki and 15 service personnel.
They are expected to reach Nepal on March 31.
They will then trek to Base Camp April 8-25. The team is likely to summit the peak between May 15 and 25.
The aim of mountaineering expeditions in NCC is to strengthen the character and instill qualities of courage, comradeship, discipline and leadership in the cadets, newsonair.com reported.
The NCC is the Indian military cadet corps with its headquarters in New Delhi. It is open to school and college students on voluntary basis. It is a Tri-Services Organization, comprising Army, Navy and Air Force, engaged in grooming the youth into disciplined and patriotic citizens.
The Cadets are given basic military training in small arms and parades. The officers and cadets have no liability for active military service once they complete their course. However, they are given preference over normal candidates during selections based on the achievements in the corps.
Director General NCC Lt Gen A Chakravarty had proposed the conduct of first NCC Girls Expedition to Mt Everest in 2014.
Pan-India trials at 25 selected hubs were carried out and 100 girl cadets nominated to undergo the customized mountaineering course at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling, from January 7 to February 3 last year.
Based on their performance, 40 girl cadets were selected for the first pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Deo-Tibba (19,688 Feet), near Manali in Himachal Pradesh in April-May, 2015, a statement by the Defence Ministry said.
A total 15 cadets were selected for the next phase based on their performance.
In August last year, the team set off on the second pre-Everest expedition to Mt Trishul (23,360 Feet), and 10 girl cadets were finally selected for the Everest Expedition.
Every year, NCC sponsors 354 boy and girl cadets for basic mountaineering courses at various places.
Mountaineering Expedition as an adventure activity was introduced in NCC in the year 1970. Since then, NCC conducts two mountaineering expeditions every year, one each for boy and girl cadets, thus having launched more than 70 expeditions to various peaks.