With the Defence Ministry giving the final approval for a mountain strike corps (50,000 troops) to counter China, the decks are now cleared for the Army to start raising it at a cost of more than Rs 70,000 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given an in principle nod to the project in July.
And the Defence Ministry has given the Government Sanction letter (GSl) to the Army in this regard with complete details of the new formation to be raised and the funds sanctioned for the purpose, sources said here on Tuesday. The 17 Corps, the latest and the 14th such formation of the Army, will be initially based in Ranchi in Jharkhand and after development of infrastructure, will be moved to Panagarh in West Bengal.
The new corps will have two divisions(one division has 10,000 soldiers) in Bihar and Assam with their units in Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of the north eastern region. The IAF will also deploy its force multiplier assets such as six each of midair refueling tankers and C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft at Panagarh.
The raising of the new corps will take seven to eight years as the Army will have to recruit soldiers, create infrastructure and procure artillery guns, howitzers, light tanks and helicopters, sources said. The Combined Commanders’ Conference to be addressed by the Prime Minister on November 22 will review this project as the Army is lagging behind in acquisition of artillery guns and howitzers.
The Army is yet to get the long range artillery guns since the Bofors guns were bought in 1986. The controversy surrounding the acquisition of Bofors gun has delayed the Army’s modernization plan. Moreover, the Howitzer deal with the US is also hanging fire for the last several months. These light guns will be bought through the foreign military sale(FMS) route wherein the US government stands guarantee for contractual obligations.