The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, May 4: The Royal Bhutan Army has requested the Darjeeling-based Himalayan Mountaineering Institute to train its personnel in search and rescue missions during landslides and earthquakes in high altitude areas.

The request was sent by the Bhutanese government through India’s Union home ministry.

“We have received the request and have accordingly, charted a special course for the Royal Bhutan Army. In principle, both the countries have agreed to train the personnel at the HMI but we are still discussing the number of personnel to be trained,” Col. Neeraj Rana, the principal of the HMI, told The Telegraph.

Bhutan wants the HMI to train six army officers but the latter is insisting on a batch of at least 30 personnel. “That is the minimum number required to make the course financially viable for the institution,” said Rana.

The HMI will charge Rs 20,000 for each trainee for the 20-day course that is scheduled to start on September 15.

The HMI had last year imparted training in rescue operations during calamities in mountainous regions to six groups of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

“The request from the Bhutanese government came after our success in training the NDRF personnel last year. We trained six batches of NDRF personnel and each batch consisted of 60 personnel. One batch had only women,” said Rana.

The mountaineering school has been selected to conduct the training given its international standing following its enrolment as a member of the Switzerland-headquartered Union Internationale Des Association D’Alpinisme (UIAA).

The UIAA, also known as the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, is a body that governs climbing across the globe. Certificates issued by the HMI will be valid across the globe as it is a member of the UIAA.

The NDRF, which conducts search and rescue operation during disasters, has jawans drawn from the Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force.

“The training revolved around search, rescue and rehabilitation when natural calamities strike mountainous regions in the country,” said Rana.

At the moment, eight battalions of the NDRF are stationed at Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu), Mundali (Orissa), Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Chandigarh, Barasat (Bengal), Guwahati, Pune and Gandhinagar.

The institution had charged Rs 16,000 for each NDRF trainee and the payment was made by the Union home ministry.