Army Chief to visit Nepal

Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh will be on a two-day visit to Nepal from June 10 to flag-in a joint Indo-Nepalese expedition which successfully scaled the Mount Everest around the 60th anniversary of scaling of world's highest peak by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Singh will visit Nepal on the invite of his Nepalese counterpart General Gaurav Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, Army officials said here.
He will also for the first time address an ex-servicemen rally of the former Gurkha troops of the Indian Army in Pokhra in Nepal, they said.
A large number of Gurkha troops serve in the Indian Army and the Defence Ministry has also opened up Ex-servicemen Contributory Health-care Scheme (ECHS) clinics to serve its former soldiers there, they said.

The joint mountaineering expedition was flagged-off from New Delhi by the Army Chief on April 3 to summit the formidable peak.
20 mountaineers finally stood on the summit of Mount Everest during the early hours of May 19 and 20 and unfurled the flags of the two nations.

This achievement came just nine days short of the diamond jubilee of the first ascent Mount Everest by Hilary and Norgay.
This expedition also made a contribution towards cleaning the peak and more than a ton of non-biodegradable waste left on the mountain by generations of climbers has been brought down, making the mountain somewhat cleaner.

Five Indian Army personnel will also participate in the 'Everest Marathon 2013' from Gorekshep at 17,000 feet to Namche Bazaar at 11,300 feet on May 20 to 30.
This is the highest marathon in the world in which participants will cover a distance of 42 km.