DIBRUGARH, Jan 19 � The annual Pangsau Pass Winter Festival will be held in picturesque Nampong village in eastern Arunachal Pradesh from January 20 to 22.
As part of the festival, the first-ever Burma Road Bicycle Expedition was flagged off today. The expedition in about 100 km stretch from Lekhapani in Tinsukia district to Myanmar�s Lake of No Return, has the theme of cross border peace �ETC�.
�ETC� implies �seeking peace through trans-boundary Environment, Tourism and Cultural Exchanges�. The Bicycle Expedition supported by the Army, Assam Rifles is being organised jointly by Help Tourism and Nature�s Beckon.
�Altogether 14 bicyclists led by Diganta Moran, head of the Doomdooma unit of Nature�s Beckon will cover the 100 kilometers within three days�, Raj Basu, activist from Help Tourism and Chief Organiser of the Expedition told mediapersons. The cyclists will also be joined by other cyclists from nearby villages along the Burma Road, the organisers said.
Pangsau Pass Winter Festival was initiated in 2007 by the people of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, mainly the Tangsas led by their leader Setong Sena, which was later joined by the Khamti and Singpho communities.
More than 120 foreign tourists are expected to arrive and scores of domestic tourists mainly from Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Guwahati are likely to come for the three-day Winter Festival, organisers informed.