Junagadh Saurastra News – Girnar Mountaineering Competition

Bhikhu Rathod of Veraval in the men’s category and Kamlesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh in women’s category have won the All India Girnar Mountaineering Competition.The event was held on Sunday at the foot of Girnar mountain in Junagadh(Saurastra).

In the junior category, Poonam Solanki (girls) and Chandresh Solanki (boys) from Una town in Junagadh district emerged winners.

Out of 232 entries received from 17 states, 141 participants took part in the competition. While competitors in the men’s group had to climb up and down 5,000 steps en-route to Ambaji peak, the women competitors had to cover 2,200 steps from Mali Parab peak to Girnar Mountain.

The competition in junior group (men’s) turned out to be tough, as the difference between the time covered by the first and the second winner was just a second.

A large number of spectators turned out since morning at Bhavnath, the venue, at the foot of the Girnar Mountain.

Apart from medals, the three winners in each group were also given prize money of Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively.

Junagadh News – About Girnar Mountain Parvat

Mount Girnar(Junagadh - Saurastra) to go Wi-Fi soon.

The pilgrim's progress on Gujarat's tallest mountain is set to be Wi-Fi-enabled. So, the next time you climb mount Girnar, you may carry your laptop to keep a tab on work as well.

"It's not viable to lay a cable network on the mountain. So we plan to install Wi-Fi system around the walking track on the mountain," said district collector Ashwani Kumar. While he refused to reveal the project cost, Kumar said the administration was in talks with a few companies and final decision will be taken soon'.

Over 25 lakh tourists throng about 30 temples, including famous Ambaji Mandir and Jain Derasar, dotting the seven peaks of the 1100-metre tall mountain.

The decision to make the mountain Wi-Fi enabled was taken to webcast the 25th Girnar Mount Climbing Competition which is slated for next month.

"We wanted to take the event to a wider audience through webcast. Though we decided to install Wi-Fi for webcasting the competition, we will continue the use the technology even after the competition," he said.

An average of 1,000 contestants participate in the event. This time around about 1,800 participants will join the event.

"Girnar Climbing Competition started in 1971 and continued up to 1979. Again efforts were made to rejuvenate the competition in 1991 by State Bank of Saurashtra.

But the event has been regularly organized since 1996 in both men and women category after the state government took over," said Devashi Ambalia, project director of the event.