In a bid to honour one of the greatest leaders of the country, four peaks of the Himalayas situated near Gangotri glacier have been named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
According to Colonel Amit Bisht, principal of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and leader of the mountain climbing team which recently scaled these Himalayan peaks said that the renamed peaks are located at the height of 6,557m, 6,566m, 6,160m and 6,100m on the right side of Gangotri glacier.
Reportedly, the mountaineering team had hoisted the national tricolour on each of these peaks. The new peaks named Atal-1, 2, 3 and 4 are located near Sudarshan and Saifi peaks in Raktvan valley, Colonel Bisht said.
The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat had flagged off these expeditions from Dehradun on October 4. The expedition was jointly conducted by Nehru Mountaineering Institute (NMI) and the Uttarakhand tourism department.
Uttarakhand State Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj had recently said that an unexplored Himalayan peak in Uttarakhand will be named after the former prime minister and BJP founder Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The idea to name a peak after Vajpayee was considered in view of the former prime minister’s love of nature and the mountains, he said.
Various state governments, urban local bodies had earlier decided to rename public institutions, cities, universities, colleges, parks in the name of Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pay their tributes to one of the country’s finest Prime Ministers.
The Jharkhand government had announced to rename seven places after AB Vajpayee. Similarly, the Chattisgarh government had decided to change the name of Naya Raipur to Atal Nagar. The Chattisgarh Government led by Dr Raman Singh had also decided to rename the Bilaspur University after Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttarakhand were formed out of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh respectively in the year 2000 during the rule of NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The former Prime Minister passed away on 16th August following a prolonged illness and was cremated in Rashtriya Smriti Stall with full state honours.
