Nepal government to set up contact office at Mount Qomolangma base camp

In a bid to make Nepal's mountaineering more safe and organized, the Nepal government has decided to set up a contact office at Mount Qomolangma (Everest) base camp for the first time from the coming spring season, officials told Xinhua on Saturday. Nepal's Tourism Ministry said as Qomolangma has been the first choice of submitters, the contact office will be established at the base of this peak and will be gradually expanded to other peaks in the future. "Due to the growing pressure, chaos and incidents of colossal at the Everest, we felt the contact office should be set up at the highest peak instantly," Madhusudan Burlakoti, a joint secretary at the ministry told Xinhua by phone, adding similar offices will be established gradually at mountains of Manasalu, Amadublam and Annapurna within the next year. The office will inform about the mountaineering activities, incidents and accidents, records and others directly to the Ministry. He said the office with all technological facility, including satellite phone, email, internet and mobile phones, will facilitate the submitters while it will also ensure the safety measures. The two offices already in place, Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee and Himalayan Rescue Association, will be merged with the contact office. With the rising number of safety concerns, both mountaineers and entrepreneurs have been long demanding with the government for the establishment of such office through which they could contact directly about their problems to the concerned authorities. Even though the government has asked a Tourism Ministry official to accompany each team of officers as liaison person, stakeholders complain that such officers do not go to the base camp at the 5,350 meter. "The liaison officers will have posting at this contact office and they should have to be there at any cost," added Burlakoti. According to the ministry figure, around 450 submitters, both Nepalis and foreigners, have been scaling the world's highest peak every year. The figure further said that Mount Qomolangma has been climbed by more than 4,000 individuals since the 1953 ascent by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.