Vagabond Expedition news conference at Guwahati Press Club on Monday Picture by UB Photos and file picture

Dec. 26: Adventure sport lovers, cheer up. An outdoor adventure sports school will be opened in the city in the first half of next year.

From paragliding to night-sky watching, cycling in hilly terrains to outdoor activities, the school will train students to enjoy outdoor sports.

The concept, designed by a city-based adventure tour firm, Vagabond Expedition, is in its final stage.

“We have shortlisted two locations so far and are working with the administration to make the school happen by the middle of next year,” the managing director of Vagabond Expedition, Sandeep Chatterjee, said.

The organisers claimed that the adventure sports school would be the first of its kind. They are hopeful of making the project happen.

Would the project meet the same fate as the flying school that had been started with lots of enthusiasm in the city near Azara but is in a dilapidated condition now?

Said Chaterjee, “It is not a question of believing if the project will happen or not. We will definitely make it happen and carry it out even if we get a single student.”

Once the school starts, its administration will try to tie up with international adventure sport institutes to facilitate better training.

The concept of adventure sports here is not very old.

The school, however, will not just stop at training students to learn adventure sports. It will also help students to understand nature as the group is closely associated with promoting eco-tourism.

“We aim to explore the unexplored destinations in the Northeast and open up a new doorway of tourism — adventure sport tourism in the region. We want to make adventure sports accessible to everyone through our school as the course will not be confined to one particular age group or group of people. Anyone who has the right fitness will be compatible with it,” Chatterjee said.

The group has recently led a cycling expedition to Mayodia Pass in Arunachal Pradesh. A 10-member team, which included participants from India and the UK, used two kinds of bike for the expedition. “The trip started on December 2 from Roing, a township in Arunachal Pradesh. The expedition passed through the Roing-Hunli-Anini route to reach Mayodiya Pass. The return journey to the base camp at Roing after covering 110km of cycling expedition in one of the toughest terrains in the foothills of eastern Himalayas is challenging,” the executive director of Vagabond Expeditions, Dhritiman Deori, said.