Jorhat, Jan. 19: A marathon cycle tour this year, spanning the Lohit and the Upper Dibang and Lower Dibang Valley districts of Arunachal Pradesh, promises to be different.

The six-day 300km tour, set to take off on Republic Day, has twin objectives - lighting up 1,500 homes in East Kameng district and luring tourists to the grandeur and magnificence of nature in the state.

Tine Mena, the Northeast's first woman to conquer Mount Everest and who is associated with the event, said the region's first full-fledged cycle tour, named The Ride to Light: The Mishmi Hills Challenge, was being held with support from Bangalore-based organisation Further and Beyond.

Mena said members of her organisation, the Mishmi Hills Trekking Company, would lead the rally, which will cover 50km or so per day and halt for the night in tents, with two nights at hotels.

"There are 40 participants from Bangalore, Assam, Mumbai, north Sikkim, Kashi and some other places. The participants will pay a joining fee and the entire amount will go for generating solar power for 1,500 homes in Seppa valley of East Kameng district under Further and Beyond's project Batti," she added.

The project aims at providing clean and renewable energy to light up homes in far-flung regions, where electricity is yet to reach, so that children can study and people can cook and do other chores at night, without depending on firelight.

The event will start from Alubori Ghat near Roing, the headquarters of Lower Dibang Valley district, and end at Anini near the Indo-Myanmar border.

The riders will be provided nutritional snacks and picnic lunches en route.

A doctor and an ambulance will accompany them.

"A lead vehicle will carve out the route and there will be motorcyclists patrolling between the riders to ensure that no one is in distress. A sweep vehicle at the rear will ferry those who cannot complete the stretch for the day," Mena said.

There will also be a cycle mechanic at hand.

Mena said the tour would take one across rugged terrain, pristine forests and mind-boggling locales where snowy mountains look down on crystal-clear lakes and rivers.

Details of how to join and picking up and transfer of riders and cycles from Dibrugarh can be obtained from the website www.ridetolight.com.

"This is a place, which very few people have seen but the splendour rivals that of the more popular Tawang route. If Tawang is India's Switzerland, this can be compared to paradise," she said.

Mena hoped that this ride would bring in more tourists and promote adventure tourism, for which this part of the region has ample scope.

The Dibang river, the main tributary of the Brahmaputra, flows through Lower Dibang Valley, which is very sparsely populated with only about 14,000 people, mostly belonging to the Mishmi, Adi and Mishing communities. To the south of the district is Tinsukia in Upper Assam.