December 9: The height of Mount Everest has increased by 86 centimetres.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali made the revelation during a function organised at the Department of Survey on Tuesday (December 9).

With the formal announcement made jointly by the Government of Nepal as well as China, the official height of Mt Everest has now been revised to 8848.86 meters.

Until now, the height of Everest was considered 8848 meters. That measurement was taken in 1857 by India’s GL Gulati Company. Nepal conducted a survey on its own following speculations that the 2015 earthquakes might have altered the height of the world’s highest peak.

Nepal and China had agreed to jointly measure the height of Mt Everest during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Nepal last year.

The Department of Survey conducted a study to measure the height of Mt Everest be spending Rs 130 million. It took almost two years to complete the study.

Survey officer Sushil Dangol informed that they used various techniques to measure the height of Mt Everest because the use of a single technique would raise doubts regarding the findings of the study. He said that the department used direct measurement, triangulation method and global positioning  system (GPS) to reach to the conclusion.

According to Dangol, the surveyors measure height of the mountain directly from both faces in direct measurement. Likewise, in the triangulation method, they use a certain point as reference to measure the height while the GPS method employs earth’s gravitational force and sophisticated equipment for the measurement.