Bengali motorcyclists team scale new heights; reach highest altitude by bikes

A six-member team of motorcyclists has installed the Biswa Banga flag and the Indian Tricolour at Chamser Kangri in Ladakh, situated at 21,524 feet, and created a new world record of the highest altitude ever reached by motorcycle.

The previous record was held by Chilean biker Gianfranco Bianchi, when he touched 21,233 feet in 2015.

The bikers belong to the North Kolkata Disha which has been conducting long distance biking and adventure biking for  the past several years. The six bikers who made the world record are : Subrata Boral, Santanu Roy-choudhury, Indradeb Chatterjee, Manas Sen, Achinta Saha and Serkrishna Biswas.

The current trip was supported by the state government and TVS Motors, who sponsored the motorcycles and the attire that were used by the bikers to cover the near-impossible terrain.

The team was seen off by the state Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari and state Power minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee. The state Irrigation and Waterways minister Rajib Banerjee and minister of State for Sports Laxmi Ratan Shukla  were also present at the function held in front of Kolkata Press Club in early August.

The bikes were taken to Chandigarh by train from where the journey began on August 11. From Chandigarh the bikers went to Manali to reach Rotang Pass. Then they moved towards the base camp at Kyrechu via Kelog, Sartechu, Debring and Korzok. From the base camp they moved towards camp I and sight camp, then finally reaching Chamser Kangri situated at 21, 524 feet.

Of the team members three are trained mountaineers including Boral, Roychoudhury and Sen. “During the journey we faced various problems like snowfall, inclement weather and all sorts of inconveniences like rough road, severe cold etc. But because of strong determination to put  Bengal on the top of the world which is the dream of our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee  we could reach the top. We hoisted the flags of Biswas Bangla, Indian Tricolour, TVS and those of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, two well known football clubs in the country.”

Long distance and adventure biking have become quite popular in the country and many young boys and girls are taking part in the sport. Boral, who is a trained adventure biker, said every year one expedition or the other was being held. It was the first mountaineering expedition which was approved by  the Indian Mountaineering Federation (IMF).