West Bengal duo climb Mount Everest

KOLKATA - Two mountaineers from West Bengal have summited the world’s highest peak - Mount Everest.

Basanta Singha Roy, 47, and Debasish Biswas, 37, scaled the 8,848-metre peak Monday, becoming the first two people from the state to achieve the feat as part of a private expedition.

Satyabrata Dam reached the peak in 2004 while Sipra Majumdar replicated the success a year later, but both were part of army expeditions.

Singha Roy, who works in a nationalised bank, hails from Krishnanagar in Nadia district. Biswas, an income tax department employee, has his roots at Palta in North 24 Parganas district.

Both live in Kolkata and are members of the Mountaineers Association of Krishnanagar (MAK), which conducted the expedition.

A seven-member team, including two sherpas - Pemba Sherpa and Pasang Futer - had set off for the expedition from Kolkata April 8.

Singha Roy and Biswas, accompanied by the two sherpas, started the final climb from their peak camp at 7,925 metres around 9 p.m. Sunday.

“But they could not climb the peak from the North Call that is through Tibet. So they opted for the South Call that is through the Nepal side,” an MAK member said.

Singha Roy’s mother Pananrani Devi said: “He has been trekking since he was 22. Mountaineering is his first love.”

Biswas’s wife Mukti Debi, who is an officer with Air India, said: “I am now waiting to hear that they are back at the base camp. I hope to get the news any time.”