Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, flagged off the ONGC Mt Kanchenjunga Expedition here on Monday.
A 15-member team, comprising twelve climbing and three base camp members, including a doctor, has been selected for Mt. Kanchenjunga Expedition 2018.
Located at an elevation of 8586 metres on the border of Sikkim (India) and Nepal, Mt Kanchenjunga, has been rated as one of the World's Toughest and most Challenging Mountains to climb.
Addressing the gathering, Pradhan appreciated ONGC's initiative.
"My best wishes to all the ONGCians in their mission to scale the 3rd highest peak in the world. After leaving the footprints of their courage, conviction & commitment on Mt. Everest last year, I am sure the 12 member team would conquer this challenge and create a new history", he said.
"These expeditions are a unique employee engagement initiative by ONGC to instill values of camaraderie, team spirit & adventure within the organization," he added.
Shashi Shanker, Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, said "ONGCians have always proved that no challenge is too big for us. After successfully scaling the Everest, the team has set its sight on one of the most difficult peaks to summit in the world. I wish them all the luck for a successful expedition."
He further added that the ONGC's history shows that we have crossed great challenges with special attention to safety of all and I am sure that the Kanchenjunga expedition members will overcome all hurdles in same spirit.
D D Misra, Director (HR), ONGC, who is the driving force behind this initiative, outlined various stages of training programme those have been imparted to the participants in the expedition.
"The successful summit of Mt Everest is still fresh in our heart. Being an E&P company, adventure is part of our DNA. Mission Kanchenjunga will enable creation of more role models, as was seen post the Everest Expedition," he said.
Misra informed that the ONGC team will scale Mt Kanchenjunga through the south east route.
"Success of the expedition will reinforce our belief that we can achieve anything through passion, attitude and grit - from highest peaks to deepest wells," he said.
Misra also highlighted that the presence of team members from different states of the country and the inclusion of three women ONGC executives, makes the expedition team a perfect embodiment of diversity and inclusivity at workplace.
The kick off to the function witnessed immense enthusiasm from the team of 15 young ONGCians drawn from different disciplines raring to scale the third highest peak of the world and extend ONGC's footprint beyond the scale of any human imagination.
The expedition is being lead by ONGCian Nirmal Kumar, who had successfully summited the Mt Everest last year. The expedition members include four members from the successful Everest expedition; Yogendar Garbiyal and Rahul Jarngal had summited the Everest while Monty Rajkhowa and Surendra Singh Tomar had scaled till camp 4 and camp 3 of the Mt Everest respectively. Other expedition members are Surendra Prasad, Palkesh G Kalma, Pankaj Joshi, Gaurav Kadian, Aayush Gupta, Aakash Bavaria and Sheetal. The support team members are Dr Sudhir V Singh, Kshatriya Rahul Vijay and Shipra Batra.
The entire team of ONGC has been trained for this expedition by experts from IMF, under the mentorship of Col H S Chauhan, President, Indian Mountaineering Foundation.
The ONGC Board of Directors and senior officials from MoPNG and oil PSUs wished the Mt Kanchenjunga Expedition Team the very best in this challenging endeavor.
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