Hyderabad: Youngsters complete Mount Everest summit

The social welfare and youth services students and youngsters together successfully completed the Mount Everest summit.

On June 4, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu congratulated the group at a programme in Hyderabad.

"They came from normal families and succeeded in a great way. I congratulate them for taking up this historic step. Being students and from the down trodden society, they made it to the top. It's a great achievement," Naidu said.

While talking to ANI, chief coach of the team Shekhar Babu said, "This is the first time an Indian team opened route to the summit from the north route and especially in this season, when it's difficult. They were trained at 21,000 feet. They were mentally and physically trained. They had to cross over dead bodies at some points."

A group of 19 youngsters started their summit, but only 14 of them succeeded in finishing the summit.

"We only want to channelise their energies into doing good things. We want these youth to believe that if they climbed Everest, they can achieve anything in the world," youth services officer Komal Kishore said.

A climber Bharath, said, "We got support from the government and we thank them for that. They spent Rs. 30 lakh on each person and we thank them for it."

The group took six months of training and began the summit on April 8.