Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman flagged-in the expedition team to Mt. Everest conducted successfully by National Institute for Mountaineering & Allied Sports (NIMAS), Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh, here today. Smt Sitharaman congratulated the team led by Director and Team Leader Col Sarfraz Singh for their remarkable achievement. It is for the first time that any National Institute expedition team has put eight members on the top of Mt.Everest in their maiden attempt.The expedition started from South Ridge of Mt Everest from Nepal side on 02 April2018 from Lukla to Everest Base camp via Namche. The team scaled Mt.Lobuche in Nepal on 20 April2018 as part of acclimatisation and final conditioning training. The rotational training to higher camps wascarried out by the team upto Camp-3 (7200M) from 22 April to 10 May2018. All the 08 members of the team successfully scaled the peak on 19 and 20 May2018 without any casualty or cold injury.