Kalinga Motor Sports Club (KMSC), in association with Nepal Automobile Sports Association (NASA), staged the 1st Indo-Nepal Friendship Motor Rally from February 27. As many as 24 teams, involving 120 participants from India and Nepal joined the rally, which was flagged off twice _ first by Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda at Puri yesterday and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here today.

The 3,060 km-long rally would reach Kathmandu before culminating at the India Gate in New Delhi on March 8. According to KMSC president for former Odisha Sports Minister Praveen Chandra Bhanjdeo, retired Army General, senior bureaucrats, politicians, motor rally veterans and many more first timers have joined the event to spread the word of friendship in India and Nepal.

``This event carries much importance as Jagannath Dham of Puri and Pashupatinath of Kathmandu have great pilgrimage importance both in India as well as in Nepal. This friendship car rally will start from sea level and culminate on the high mountains of the Himalayas. Later it will leave Kathmandu and end in New Delhi,`` he said.

The rally would cover the Buddhist trail in India and Nepal starting from Dhauli Shanti Stupa, where King Ashok left his sword for peace after `The Battle of Kalinga`. It will pass through Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Pataliputra and reach Lumbini (Nepal), the birth place of Goutam Buddha.
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PHOTO: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik flags off the rally in Bhubaneswar on February 28, 2015.