Nepal government agrees to extend permit for five years
Travelbiznews online —-
Kathmandu: Nepal government agreed to extend time permit for next five years for the expedition teams of 2014 spring season keeping in view the demands of the climbers involved in the expedition teams according to Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bhim Acharya.
Earlier, a delegation of government officials and representatives of tourism and mountaineering organizations visited Everest base camp on April 24 in an attempt to salvage the expedition season even as Sherpa mountain guides, support staff and foreign tour operators begin to pack up their gear and head home.
Tourism minister met Sherpa leaders on Everest’s base camp to persuade them to withdraw their threat to boycott the rest of the climbing season following the death of 16 guides in an avalanche last week.
According to the media reports, several foreign climbing expeditions have called off attempts to scale Everest following an avalanche.The U.S.-based International Mountain Guides (IMG) became the largest team to pull out in response to the tragedy with 40 climbers in three teams on the mountain.
The government agreed to allocate 5 percent of the total 30 percent mountaineering royalty received by the concerned District Development Committee to the ‘Mountaineers Welfare Fund ‘. The relief fund would be utilized to compensate the injured and rehabilitation of families of the deceased climbers.
The government decided to increase the insurance amount for the mountaineering guides and staff to Rs 1.5 million from existing Rs 1 million and medical insurance to Rs 400,000 from existing Rs 300,000.
The government decided to establish a memorial of the deceased and missing climbers following the death of 13 climbers and 3 missing climbers after the deadliest avalanche on the world’s highest mountain.
April 25, 2014
