13 Tata Steel employees, 5 rural youths part of the team
Jamshedpur, August 2: Twenty members team including five women will embark on Mount Kanamo Expedition organised by Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) from August 6 to 18. This would be TSAF’s fifth venture to 19600 feet high peak situated in Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh. The expedition aims to impart Leadership Lessons through Mountaineering.
The team comprises of 13 Tata Steel employees, 5 rural youths from Noamundi (Jharkhand) and Odisha along with 2 Non-Tata Steel members, said Hemant Gupta, senior manager, TSAF.
Addressing a press conference at TSAF wing of JRD Tata Stadium on Wednesday, Hemant, who recently climbed Mount Everest, said, the expedition will be led by TSAF’s senior instructor Sandeep Tolia with support from Everester Premlata Agarwal and support staff Ranadab Rawat. Pranav Mamgain, Manager, TSAF would be the overall administration in charge. Bachendri Pal, India’s first woman to climb Mount Everest and chief, Adventure
Programme, Tata Steel, will be accompanying to guide the team.
Sandeep Tolia has considerable field experience of handling groups in Himalayas. He has been part of the TSAF team conducting Leadership Development courses in Himalayas for more than 12 years.
He further said that selection trial for employees was held at Dalma were more than 100 Tata Steel employees turned up of which 13 were selected based on their fitness level. For selecting rural youths, Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) coordinators conducted the trial at were 25 youths turned up and 5 could be chosen including 2 women.
‘No porters will be taken during the expedition which would be used for teaching leadership skills to the team members who are beginners. The situation on the mountain will be an opportunity to learn tolerance for adversity & uncertainty, judgement and decision making as well as self-awareness. Team members would be given the responsibility of taking care of specific chores like preparing food, ferrying ration to higher camps, managing equipments and tents’, said Bachendri Pal.
Bachendri Pal who herself has climbed Mount Kanamo four times, said, the expedition will help develop personality and character of the employees which they could use in their life and workplace.
Also present at the press meet, Sandeep Tolia, said, the expedition team will leave Jamshedpur on August 6th, 2017 in the early hours. They will reach Manali on August 8th, 2017. From Manali they will go to Kaza on August 9th, 2017. Two nights they will stay there for acclimatization and visit Kibber monastery along the way. They will reach to Kibber on August 11th, 2017. Kibber is the highest village in the World.
On August 12 the expedition team will load ferry to advance base camp and will occupy base camp on August 13. They will attempt summit on August 14 and if needed August 15 is kept as a reserve day. The Expedition would return on August 19th, 2017, added Sandeep.
13 Tata Steel employees include-Rajesh Mallik (Cold Rolling Mill), Suman Kumar Kuila (Iron making Ele. Maintenance.), Sameer Sen Sharma ( FME Crane Group – 2), Gangadhar Das (LD # 2 , SC), Sanjay Kumar Sahoo (LD # 2 , SC), Arun Pratap Singh (Field Maintenance Mech), M Shekhar (LD Shop # 1), Nawal Kishore Singh (Flat Product), Anuj Kumar (Security (TSK)), Subham Kumar Giri (MED (Mechanical)).
Three women employees include – Nidhi Tiwari (FM (Mechanical)), Rupa Kumari (IMEM Battery (10, 11) and Neekita Patel
Rural Youth from Nuamundi and Odisha include- Sima Kumari Gope, Manisha Kumari, Ananto Kumar, Manish Hamron and Debasis Mohant. Two Non-Tata Steel members are Ritik Raj from Jamshedpur and Ramchandra Jarhad from Mumbai.
It may be noted that TSAF will also organize Mount Kanamo Expedition from August 18- 26 August 2017 for Non-Tata Steel employees.