Army officer pedals to Singapore in 40 days

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 23

Accomplishing an ambitious mission on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a 40-day, four-nation and 4,000-km cycling expedition of Jalandhar-based Col Sarfaraz Singh and his team of three experts concluded at Singapore on Thursday.

It was in Singapore that Bose laid the foundation stone of the Indian National Army memorial during on June 8, 1945. So, completion of the tour today is significant, said Col Sarafaraz’s father and former hockey Olympian Col Balbir Singh (retd).

Col Balbir said: “My son has gone on the expedition with three teammates, Saurav, Mithin and Amit. Sarafaraz and his team have become the first and the only Indians to cycle from Manipur to Singapore, via Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. They rode along the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, Gulf of Thailand, Strait of Malacca and Singapore Strait. The passage included difficult terrains and thick jungles. They also crossed the famous bridge on the Kwai river in Myanmar and Georgetown in Penang Island of Mayasia. In Thailand, Ambassador Suchitra Durai flagged off their expedition.”

An alumnus of Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun, and the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Col Sarfaraz Singh is the fourth generation officer in the Indian Army. He has a vast experience of scaling prominent peaks, including Mt Everest and Mt Kilimanjaro. He is also among the few mountaineers from the country who reached the base of Mt Nyegyi Kansang from Seppa in Arunachal Pradesh.

Col Sarafaraz conducted the first-ever rafting expedition on the untamed and challenging Kameng river of Arunachal Pradesh. He also led and cycled the first high altitude expedition from Bomdila to Bumla pass, covering a total distance of 300 km.

Col Sarfaraz, who is from the elite Parachute Regiment of the Indian Army and has commanded its 6 Para unit, took over as the first director and principal of the National Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in February 2017. He is not just a mountaineer but also a sky diver, combat free faller, river rafting specialist and a certified scuba rescue diver.