Haryana duo covers7,050 km on tractor journey

An advocate and a teacher from Haryana have shown how a tractor can be used outside a farmland.

The duo returned to Chandigarh on a tractor on Saturday, World Peace Day, completing 7,050 km across 14 states in just 19 days, to drive home a message of peace and love. The “Indo-Farm’s Great Indian Tractor Journey” from Chandigarh to Kanyakumari entered the Limca Book of World Records for the longest Indian expedition on a tractor.

Advocate Jaibir Singh Virk and Amit Chaudhary, a schoolteacher, on Saturday said, “It was the toughest and the most challenging expedition for us, but so is to find peace in the world today.”

The duo drove a 75-HP Indo-Farm tractor with an air-conditioned cabin, power steering and power brakes.

 It is the same make used in the recently released Bollywood movie “Chennai Express,” said Anshul Khadwalia, executive vice-president, Indo-Farm Equipment. The youngest member of the team was 22-year-old Himanshu, who followed Virk and Chaudhary in a support vehicle as the tractor moved at a maximum speed of 35 kmph.

Virk (33) seemed obsessed with tractors. He claimed to have undertaken a couple of similar expeditions in the past. “I undertook a solo expedition on a tractor in 2008 to the world’s highest motorable road in Khardungla at 18,380 feet. Then I embarked on a Himalayan odyssey in June 2012, covering 3,623 Km in 14 days with Amit. We also entered the Limca Book of World Records by driving a tractor in reverse gear for over 14 hours for the longest ever non-stop reverse drive,” he said.

The journey was exhausting. The duo took turns to drive an average of 400 km for around 18 hours everyday. Recounting their journey, Virk and Amit said: “When we reached Chambal valley, it was night and some people advised us to resume the next morning. But we continued. Every inch of the journey has been recorded and documented.”