Former Naval chief Admiral DK Joshi may have set the right precedent by stepping down from his post following eruption of fire on February 26 on board submarine INS Sindhuratna, around 40 nautical miles off Mumbai, but the same quantum of seriousness seems to be missing from the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala - the breeding ground of officers - where training facilities are yet to be completed, and it may take at least four years for the necessary infrastructure to be fully established. RTI documents in possession of TOI reveal that apart from the infrastructure woes, housing problems of officers and sailors at INA, Ezhimala also haunts the men in white and the prospective officers. As per the documents, till 1954, the training of Indian naval officers was done at Dartmouth (United Kingdom). After independence, Indian Navy started ab-initio training of the cadets from a makeshift facility. The facility needed to grow in order to encompass the charging requirements of the Navy, which was said to modernise. A better facility was considered essential. The above factors necessitated shifting of the academy of INS Mandovi from Kochi in January 1986, till a permanent set-up could be created. In January 2009, the Naval Academy shifted to the current location at Ezhimala. The training facility was needed in order to provide a suitable and well-equipped environment for the ab-initio training of the cadets as also to cater to train large number of officers being inducted to meet the manpower requirements for the growing Navy, reads the RTI reply. The project overlay allocation for the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala is Rs 1062.6 crore.The project pertaining to INA, Ezhimala is covered in two phases. The broad objective of Phase-1 was to set up facilities to train 600 trainees, which was revised to 750 trainees. Phase-2 aims to increase the strength to 1200 trainees. Phase-1 is scheduled to be completed by December 2015, while phase-2 by April 2018, reveals the RTI reply and adds that as many as 15 firms were assigned the task of construction work pertaining to the INA, Ezhimala, while 71 bidders participated for the works. Apart from this, housing shortage is staring the INA Ezhimala as well, as 79 sailors and 31 civilians are residing outside the naval base, Ezhimala. The sanctioned strength of officers is 180, sailors - 429 and civilians - 393. As many as 144 houses of officers and 716 houses for sailors and civilians are currently available.What is interesting is the fact that the swimming pool of the academy became functional in 2007, almost two years before the academy was eventually shifted to its current location. Navys peacetime casualties overshadow wartime losses: The Indian Navy in a RTI reply admitted, Three ships have been lost/destroyed since August 15, 1947. These include INS Khukri (missile corvette) on December 9, 1971; INS Andaman (ASW corvette) on August 21, 1990 and INS Prahar (missile boat) on April 22, 2006. While INS Khukri was lost during war time, INS Andaman and INS Prahar have been peacetime causality. INS Khukri was lost because it sank at sea and could not be salvaged.The total loss of human lives in naval vessels getting lost/destroyed is 237. This includes 204 in INS Khukri, 15 in INS Andaman and 18 in INS Sindhurakshak (submarine), which suffered extensive damages at Mumbai on August 14, 2013.The RTI reply further states, In addition to the above, following had suffered extensive damages in accident/collision, but are not classified as lost or destroyed. These include: INS Agray (ASW craft), which met with an accident at sea and was extensively damaged on February 5, 2004. The ship was salvaged and subsequently made operational. Similarly, on January 30 INS Vindhyagiri (Frigate) collided with a merchant ship in Mumbai harbour resulting in a major fire onboard. The ship was salvaged and thereafter decommissioned. On August 14, 2013, INS Sindhurakshak (submarine) met with an accident while berthed alongside in Mumbai harbour.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 19:32:35 +0000
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