AROUND 950 Indian army personnel on Friday (17) left for Jammu from Bengaluru on a special train for their deployment in various field formations along the border with Pakistan, military officials said.
Another train will leave from Bengaluru on Saturday to take another group of army personnel to the north eastern region for their deployment in forward posts along the border with China, they said.
The trains were arranged following approval from the home ministry and the Railways to facilitate deployment of the personnel at various frontline field formations along the borders with the two countries, official sources said.
The Railways has suspended all its passenger trains till May 3 in sync with the nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The Army personnel are returning to field formations after completing professional courses at Army training establishments at Bengaluru, Belgaum and Secundrabad.
Reports said that all personnel have undergone mandatory quarantine period and are medically fit. The train is scheduled to reach Jammu on April 20.
The second train to ferry army personnel to units deployed in the northeastern region will go to Guwahati via New Jalpaiguri.
The Indian Army has taken a series of measures to insulate its 13 lakh personnel from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Indian Army has directed all its military establishments, cantonments, formation headquarters and field units to totally restrict movement of forces till April 19 in view of the government's fresh lockdown related guidelines.
The order also mentioned that offices in army headquarters, command headquarters and formation headquarters would start functioning with 50 per cent manpower from April 19 to May 3.
Damian Talbot