April 3: With the onset of spring season, aspiring mountaineers have already started obtaining climbing permits and are all set to begin their expeditions.
The Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation informed that 22 expedition groups were granted permission as of March 31.    
So far, five groups have received permission for climbing the highest mountain in the world Mt Everest while four have obtained permission to scale Mt Annapurna.    
Similarly, one group each was given permit for scaling Mt Ama Dablam, Mt Lhotse, Mt Kanchejungha and Mt Dhaulagiri.    
Permits were also issued for climbing peaks such as Mt Nuptse and Minglung Peak. Altogether 153 aspiring climbers, including 37 women and 116 men, have received permits to climb various mountains, the department said.    
The fepartment further shared that over Rs 56 million has been collected in royalties from the climbers so far. - RSS