Kovai to London: Three women to cover 24,000 km across 24 nations

Coimbatore

The all women team named XPD2470 comprises Meenakshi Arvind (45), Mookambika Rathinam (38) of Coimbatore and Priya Rajpal (55) of Mumbai. Their adventure trip rolled out from Coimbatore on Sunday. Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani flagged off the expedition from S N R College of Arts and Science in the city. 

As a mark of respect for the globetrotters with a cause, they were escorted by 70 superbikes and as many cars for 24 km from Coimbatore city. They were headed to Puducherry on Sunday and would be reaching Chennai on Monday. 

As per the schedule, the trio would be covering the maximum distance of 836 km in a day at Romania on May 22, which they expect to make in nine hours. The next longest distance would be 720 km in a day from Moscow in Russia to Minsk in Belarus on May 16. They plan to clock 600 km a day on five days during the trip and 500 km on eight or more days. They would be driving down 400 km a day for nearly 16 days to complete the expedition in 70 days. 

The quality of the road also matters as they would be able to cover only 180 km in seven hours from Sary Tash to Osh in Kyrgyzstan on May 2 and the distance from Osh to Qaqan (Uzbekistan) in five hours on May 4. They would take a break from driving on 17 days during the trip. 

Chief coordinator of Rotary India Literacy Mission Road Trip, K A Kuriachan, told DTNext that the total cost of the trip was Rs 70 lakh, which was mobilised with the help of over a dozen sponsors. It would cost an additional Rs 15 lakh for the Rotary events to be organised at the 60 places where the women would be stopping over to honour women achievers there. 

“In India, they will take part in events to honour educated women excelling as sportspersons, entrepreneurs and in other fields at Coimbatore, Puducherry, Chennai, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Siliguri, Guwahati and Imphal. They will honour boxing legend Mary Kom at Imphal,” he said. 

The trip has become expensive as their stay in four countries— Myanmar (4 days), China (20 days), Uzbekistan (3 days) and Russia (5 days)— would not be covered by the Rotarians.   

“Tata Motors have provided the vehicle worth Rs 21 lakh for the trip and it must be given back on the team’s return. Rs 7 lakh will be spent to bring the car back from London and Rs 3 lakh will be for escorting the car throughout China and in Myanmar, which is mandatory,” added Kuriachan.

About the car

• The top of the car has been fixed with a canopy that can be extended at ease to provide them shade for a short break. The car has been provided with chairs and tables that will help them relax under the canopy 
• Additional spares, such as two tyres, wiper blades and other equipment to attend in case of emergency provided as they will be travelling through mountains and forests 
• In addition to the vehicle’s capacity of 55 litres, it has been provided with an additional tank with a capacity of 50 litres to meet emergency situations 
• The car has been equipped with oxygen cylinders as they would be criss-crossing extremely cold regions. The drivers could get tired during such long expeditions  
• All three women have undergone threeday intensive repair and maintenance training as they will be travelling without a mechanic 

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