Nepal Plans Free SIM Cards to Hikers Visiting Remote Areas Alone

Nepal aims to give free SIM cards to hikers visiting remote areas alone in consideration of several foreign hikers who got lost over the past years, said officials in Nepal.

With 8 of 14 highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest among the Himalayas, Nepal attracts thousands of foreign hikers every year. However, several hikers went missing in these years, causing concerns about the safety of tourists.

The Mount Everest

Benefiting about 30,000 solo hikers visiting remote areas every year, the free SIM card will be given to the hikers after they permit, making it easy to find out the location of the missing hiker by tracking the SIM card or the calls given by the missing hiker for help or rescue.

Last year, almost 14% of 800,000 tourists came to Nepal for climbing and hiking, and most of them came during the peak climbing and hiking season from March to May or early June. Since climbing remote high mountains is likely to cause danger, most tourists prefer to regular and safer trekking tours, like hiking around Kathmandu valley.

Durbar Square

Besides mountain climbers, Nepal is also very popular with wildlife lovers for its thrilling jungle safari at Chitwan National Park, and cultural heritage lovers for the vivid Durbar Square in Bhaktapur, time-honored Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, etc.