Last year’s champions Sheikh Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa successfully defended their title at the Biswa Bangla JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 6, emerging victorious over Kolkata duo Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta separating the two teams by merely five penalty points. The five-day rally, India’s only tri-nation TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) rally, took 24 competitors across Nepal, North Bengal and Bhutan over 1650 kilometres and through challenging terrain to culminate at Darjeeling on Tuesday, February 27.
The competition remained close right from day 1 with the defending champions Ajgar and Musthafa leading from start to finish over the course of the five legs. Subir and Nirav put up a brave fight and could have clinched the crown had their luck played out differently. Unfortunately, two legs of the rally- Leg 2 and 3 – staged in Nepal were cancelled due to technical problems arising out of rallying through different time zones.
In the Open category, the team of Gagan Sethi and Dhiraj Arrora maintained their lead right from the first day and emerged champions with a cumulative score of 1,493 penalty points. The team of Govind Dalmia and Anand Agarwala from Siliguri finished a distant second with a cumulative score of 5,849 penalty points. Pranjal More and Milindo Paul, also from Siliguri, were in third position at the end of the rally with 7,006 penalty points. In the SUV category, Amit Dhanotia and Anuragh Agarwala emerged as the winners with 9,461 penalty points, while in the ‘Above 1300 cc category’, Pranai Rai and Nanki Kharki from Kalimpong were declared the winners with 11,124 penalty points. Another Kalimpong team comprising Bimal Kumar Poudel and Rajendra Gaire went home with top honours in the Under 1300 cc category with 64,064 penalty points.
The rally was flagged off from Siliguri in North Bengal jointly by Siliguri Police Commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhury and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Inspector General Srikumar Bandopadhyay on February 23. Hundreds lined up at the flag-off venue with police and SSB brass and pipe bands playing different and popular tunes. The rallyists drove through Matigara-Kurseong Road, Khaprail Bazar and Panihati before reaching the vast dry bed of the Manja river, a tributary of Teesta river. They then drove through Naxalbari (which incubated the infamous ultra-left Naxal movement) to enter Nepal at Kakarbhitta.
The first leg of the rally took the competitors through dirt and dust tracks inside tea gardens and through lush forests. They also traversed through narrow village roads. At Kakarbitta, HD6 participants were accorded a warm welcome by the Nepal Automotive Sports Association (NASA). The rallyists then drove 466 kilometres on the busy East-West Highway to reach Chitwan for the night halt. Out of the total 521 kilometres that the competitors travelled on Friday, 74 kilometres was in the competitive section.
The second leg of the rally (which was later cancelled) was flagged off from the periphery of the world-famous Chitwan National Park, home to the endangered one-horned rhino, the Royal Bengal Tiger, bisons, elephants and a wide variety of flora and fauna. The second day’s 80 kilometer-long rally route traversed through hills, tropical forests, embankments of the Rapti river and dry beds of the Rapti’s many tributaries.
On the third leg of the rally (which was also cancelled later), the competitors started from the periphery of Chitwan National Park and drove through the Lothar river embankment, down the East-West Highway to enter the Itahari forest for another competitive section that took them over dirt tracks cutting through forests and then a dry river beds. They then entered India through Kakarbhitta and drove through Gajaldoba, which is being promoted by the West Bengal government as a major tourist attraction. The rallyists then crossed Lataguri to reach Murti, located beside the Gorumara National Park, home to rhinos and the white-headed bison. This day’s drive took the rallyists over 609 kilometers and through verdant forests and tea gardens. It was a thrilling drive through many tourist spots.
The fourth leg of the rally on Monday (February 26) got off to a bright start from Murti in the Dooars area of North Bengal on Monday morning and entered Bhutan a few hours later. The rallyists drove through a few dry riverbeds and scenic tea gardens. The 135-odd kilometre rally route included a few dirt tracks too. The competitors initially passed through some dirt tracks in the Gorumara forest and crossed Khunia More to get on to river beds. They drove down roads slicing through tea gardens in Bannarhat and in the vicinity of Binnaguri to get on to the national highway to travel through Alipurduar district, passed the entrance to Jaldapara National Park and Old Hasimara Bazar before entering the next competitive zone that took them through dirt tracks and gravel roads and on to a river bed. The rallyists then passed through the Chuapara Tea Estate and then Bhatpara Tea Estate.
After a sumptuous lunch at the sprawling director’s bungalow of the Bhatpara Tea Estate, the rallyists drove through another competitive section through tea gardens and dirt and gravel tracks before getting on to another river bed, and then driving through embankments and more dirt tracks to get on to another river bed. They then got on to the road to Jaigaon before crossing two more river beds and finally entering Bhutan.
On the final leg of the rally on Tuesday (February 27), the competitors were flagged off from Tashi Namgay Grand Hotel above Phuentsholing in Bhutan in the morning. They crossed into India at Jaigaon and drove past Jaldapara National Park, which is home to Royal Bengal Tigers, one-horned rhinos, bisons and elephants, the Binnaguri army cantonment and to Murti, from where the competitive zone started. The competitors then hit the hills and passed through Samsing, Gorubathan, Lava and the charming hill station of Kalimpong where they had lunch and then continued through the steep, tea bush-covered hills of Peshoke to reach Darjeeling in the evening through Jorebungalow. They covered nearly 250 kilometres, of which the competitive section covered 180 kilometeres.
The scenic and iconic Mall in Darjeeling provided the perfect setting to the prize distribution ceremony of the rally. Hundreds of local people and tourists gathered at the open venue where prizes were handed over to the winners in various categories by local dignitaries. Darjeeling district police chief Akhilesh Chaturvedi gave away the trophies and cheques of Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively to Himalayan Drive 6 champions Sheikh Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa and runners-up Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta. Superintendent of Police (Operations) Amarnath gave away the trophies and a cheque of Rs 25,000 to the team of Captain Vijaykumar Sharma and Chandan Sen who finished third in the National category with 290 penalty points. The winners and runners-up in the Open category also got cash awards of Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.
A galaxy of local dignitaries, including Nima Dorjee Sherpa who summitted Mount Everest eight times, Darjeeling additional district magistrate Pushpendu Mitra, and chairmen of various ingenious development boards, also handed over prizes to winners in the other categories.
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