In a remarkable achievement, two civilians from West Bengal climbed the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, this morning, becoming the first civilian duo from the state to reach the summit.

The news of their feat was greeted with joy across the city and the state government, in a rare departure, has promised to accord a gala reception to the team members when they return to the city.

What sets apart the achievement of the two-member team is that the mountaineers pulled it off without any army help, which is the tradition for any expedition in the region.

Basanta Singha Roy (47) and Debasish Biswas (39), both amateur climbers, reached the Mt Everest peak — it is said to have a height 29,028 feet or 8,848 meters — at 7.45 am today and sent a message through satellite phone to the base camp at Solo Khumbu in Nepal — located at a height of 16,000 ft.

Basanta is an employee of Punjab National Bank while Debasish is an officer with the Income-Tax department. Both are from middle-class Bengali families and nurtured their passion for mountaineering since childhood. The expedition was planned and executed by the Mountaineers Association of Krishnanagar (MAK), a club formed by mountaineering enthusiasts like Singha Roy and Biswas about 25 years ago at Krishnanagar in Nadia district of West Bengal ¿ about 100 km from Kolkata.

A five-member team comprising Ashok Roy, Sourav Mondal and Bibhas Sarkar and the two summiteers Basanta and Debasish set out from Kolkata for the expedition on April 1. “The team was set to climb through the Rongbook glacier, North Col and Northeast Ridge route in Tibet, but was not allowed by the Chinese government to take the route. The expedition members then decided to climb from the traditional Khumbu Glacier, South Col, Southeast Ridge route in Nepal,” said Tarak Nath Sen, an executive committee member of MAK. Sen added that for a final push, the duo had set out from summit camp at South Col (mountain pass) at above 26,000 feet around 8 pm on Sunday night and climbed the peak at 7.45 am today.

Back home, the entire state was rejoicing. “I am very happy at the feat. The state government will accord civic receptions to the summiteers,” Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said in a statement.

Shriti Singha Roy, Basanta’s wife, has been waiting for the day with bated breath for the past few weeks. News of bad weather and the dangers of the expeditions were always at the back of her mind. “I am so happy. He has achieved his dream. I just want to speak to him once he returns to the base camp,” she said.

She said Basanta has been passionate about mountaineering since 1989 and he even spent his personal savings for the expeditions. “He borrowed from whatever sources he could and also risked money from his provident fund for the expedition,” she said.

Debasish’s wife Mukti was equally jubilant. “When I married him in 1998, I had just heard mountaineering was his hobby. I did not realize he would conquer Mount Everest someday,” she said showing her sons Shantanu (10) and Debanshu (7) the pictures of their father while he was leaving for the expedition. Both the children have been to training sessions of mountaineering.

Ramit Singha Roy (14), son of Basanta, is also keen on adventure sports. “For the last three months, I had not heard him talking about anything except his Everest expedition. After office, he would climb stairs to his ninth-floor flat for hours at a stretch preparing for the summit,” said Debasish’s freind B N Karmakar. “What is most encouraging is two men from middle-class Bengali families with their commitment to their jobs have scaled the peak on the strength of their will,” he said.