Operational Requirements of TA Re-assessed
The Ministry of Railways has decided, on 3 June, to disband five Railway Engineers Territorial Army Regiments located at Jhansi, Kota, Adra, Chandigarh and Secunderabad. However, Railway Engineer Regiment (Territorial Army) located at Jamalpur will be retained for operational role along the route New Jalpaiguri-Siliguri-Newmal-Alipurduar-Rangiya.
The Railway Territorial Army (TA) units were raised as an auxiliary force in 1949 under the Territorial Army Act, 1948, for maintaining rail communications in forward areas during active hostilities and maintenance of essential rail transportation in the country in peace time whenever required. These are manned primarily by the serving railway personnel with the help of small nucleus of permanent staff drawn from regular Army.
The ministry said that a committee of three executive directors/principal executive director was constituted to review the existing functional establishment of six Railway Engineers Territorial Army Regiments. The committee re-assessed the operational requirements of Railway TA Regiments.
“On the basis of the recommendations of the above committee and with the concurrence of the Ministry of Defence and Directorate General of Territorial Army, Ministry of Railways has decided disbandment of five Railway Engineers Territorial Army Regiments located at Jhansi, Kota, Adra, Chandigarh and Secunderabad. Retention of one Railway Engineer Regiment (TA) located at Jamalpur for the operational role along the route New Jalpaiguri-Siliguri-Newmal-Alipurduar-Rangiya (361 kms) to cover the critical rail link through Siliguri corridor and further up to Rangiya as proposed by Ministry of Defence,” the statement said.
The disbandment process is to be completed by Directorate General Territorial Army within a duration of nine months from the date of issue of Ministry of Railways letter dated June 3, 2022, and the modalities for the same are to be worked out by DGTA in consultation with Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Defence.
History
The Territorial Army was raised in 1920 through Indian Territorial Act of 1920 and comprised of two wings namely – ‘The Auxiliary Force’ for Europeans & Anglo-Indians, and ‘The Indian Territorial Force’ for Indian Volunteers. After Independence the Territorial Army Act was passed in 1948 and the first Indian Governor General Shri C Rajagopalachari formally inaugurated the Territorial Army on 9 October 1949.
The Territorial Army initially had various types of units such as Armed Regt (TA), Infantry Battalion (TA), Air Defence (TA),Med Regt (TA), Engineers Field Park Coy (TA), Signal Regiment (TA), EME Workshop (TA), Coast Battery (TA), ASC GT Coy (TA), ASC Compo Platoon (TA), AMC Field Ambulance (TA). By 1972 these units have either been disbanded or converted to Regular Army except Infantry Battalion (TA).
The Territorial Army is a part of Regular Army and its present role is to relieve the Regular Army from static duties and assist Civil Administration in dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services in situations where life of the communities is affected or the security of the Country is threatened and to provide units for Regular Army as and when required.
Presently the Territorial Army has a strength of approx fifty thousand personnel comprising of Departmental TA units such as Railway, IOC, ONGC, and Non Departmental TA units of Infantry Battalion (TA) including Home & Hearth Battalions, Ecological Battalion (TA) affiliated to various Infantry Regiments and Engineer Regiment (TA) for maintenance of Line of Control Fencing. Now, one Composite Eco Task Force for National Mission for Clean Ganga is under raising at Allahabad.
The TA units were actively involved in 1962, 1965 and 1971 operations. The“Terriers” have also taken part in Op Pawan in Sri Lanka, Op Rakshak in Punjaband J&K, Op Rhino and Op Bajrang in the North East in a most active manner. Departmental units came to the aid of the Civil Authorities during Industrial unrest and natural calamities, most famous being the earthquake in Latur (Maharashtra), Uttarkashi in Garhwal Himalaya and the Supper Cyclone in Odisha. The Ecological units have arrested man made environmental degradation by planting approx six crore and 65 lakh trees over 66,000 Hectares of land in Mussoorie Hills & Pithoragarh (UK), Shimla (HP), Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) Bhatti Mines (Delhi), Charduar, Kokrajhar (Assam) and Samba (J&K).
Many Industrialists, politicians and eminent personalities have been members of the TA. The force also has had the honour of appointing 11 officers over the years as Hony ADC to the President of India.
Departmental Units
Oil Sector
801 Engineer Regiment Refineries & Pipelines (TA) – Agra
811 Engineer Regiment ONGC (TA) – Baroda
414 ASC Battalion Marketing (TA) – Kamptee
Indian Railways
969 Railway Engineers Regiment (TA) – Jamalpur
970 Railway Engineers Regiment (TA) – Jhansi (to be disbanded)
1031 Railway Engineers Regiment (TA) – Kota (to be disbanded)
1032 Railway Engineers Regiment (TA) – Adra (to be disbanded)
1101 Railway Engineers Regiment (TA) – Chandigarh (to be disbanded)
1105 Railway Engineers Regiment (TA) – Secunderabad (to be disbanded)
General Hospitals
General Hospital (TA) (500 Beds) – Kolkata
General Hospital (TA) (400 Beds) – Allahabad
General Hospital (TA) (300 Beds) – Jaipur
General Hospital (TA) (300 Beds) – Patiala
General Hospital (TA) (300 Beds) – Guwahati
General Hospital (TA) (300 Beds) – Ahmadabad
General Hospital (TA) (400 Beds) – Rohtak
Others
777 Signal Regiment Telecom (TA) – Mhow
Ecological Task Forces (ETF)
127 Infantry Battalion (TA) Garhwal Rifles Eco – Dehradun, Uttarakhand
128 Infantry Battalion (TA) Rajputana Rifles Eco – Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
129 Infantry Battalion (TA) JAK LI Eco – Samba, Jammu and Kashmir
130 Infantry Battalion (TA) Kumaon Eco – Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand
132 Infantry Battalion (TA) Rajput Eco – New Delhi (Union Territory)
133 Infantry Battalion (TA) Dogra Eco – Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
134 Infantry Battalion (TA) Assam Eco – Rangiya, Assam
135 Infantry Battalion (TA) Assam Eco – Sonitpur, Assam
136 Infantry Battalion (TA) Mahar Eco – Aurangabad, Maharashtra
137 Composite Eco-Task Force Battalion (TA) 39 Gorkha Regiment – Allahabad
Non-departmental Units
The decision to raise Home and Hearth (H&H) units was taken in 2003-2004, based on the “sons of soil” model. The 162 Infantry Battalion TA JAK LI (H&H) is exclusively for Ikhwans. The H&H personnel are completely recruited from Jammu and Kashmir only. The three Engineer Regiments were raised for maintenance of the Line of Control.
Infantry Battalions
101 Infantry Battalion (TA) Maratha Light Infantry – Pune, Maharashtra
102 Infantry Battalion (TA) Punjab Regiment – Kalka, Haryana
103 Infantry Battalion (TA) Sikh Light Infantry – Ludhiana, Punjab
105 Infantry Battalion (TA) Rajputana Rifles – Delhi Cantonment, New Delhi
106 Infantry Battalion (TA) Para – Bengaluru, Karnataka
107 Infantry Battalion (TA) 11 Gorkha Rifles – Darjeeling, West Bengal
108 Infantry Battalion (TA) Mahar – Dehradun, Uttarakhand
109 Infantry Battalion (TA) Maratha Light Infantry – Kolhapur, Maharashtra
110 Infantry Battalion (TA) Madras – Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
111 Infantry Battalion (TA) Kumaon – Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
112 Infantry Battalion (TA) Dogra – Jalandhar, Punjab
113 Infantry Battalion (TA) Rajput – Kolkata
114 Infantry Battalion (TA) Jat – Fatehgarh
115 Infantry Battalion (TA) Mahar Regiment – Belgaum, Karnataka
116 Infantry Battalion (TA) Parachute Regiment – Devlali, Maharashtra
117 Infantry Battalion (TA) Guards – Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
118 Infantry Battalion (TA) Grenadiers – Bhusawal, Maharashtra
119 Infantry Battalion (TA) Assam – Shillong, Meghalaya
120 Infantry Battalion (TA) Bihar – Bhubaneswar, Odisha
121 Infantry Battalion (TA) Garhwal Rifles – Kolkata, West Bengal
122 Infantry Battalion (TA) Madras Regiment – Kannur, Kerala
123 Infantry Battalion (TA) The Grenadiers – Jaipur, Rajasthan
124 Infantry Battalion (TA) Sikh – New Delhi
125 Infantry Battalion (TA) Guards – Secunderabad, Telangana
126 Infantry Battalion (TA) Jammu and Kashmir Rifles – Madhopur, Punjab
150 Infantry Battalion (TA) Punjab Regiment – New Delhi (Union Territory)
151 Infantry Battalion (TA) Jat Regiment – Muzaffarpur, Bihar
152 Infantry Battalion (TA) Sikh Regiment – Ludhiana, Punjab
153 Infantry Battalion (TA) Dogra Regiment – Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
154 Infantry Battalion (TA) Bihar Regiment – Brichgunj (Port Blair), Andaman and Nicobar Islands
155 Infantry Battalion (TA) Jammu and Kashmir Rifles – Sujanpur, HP
Infantry Battalion (Home and Hearth)
156 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Punjab Regiment – Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir
157 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Sikh Regiment – BD Bari, Jammu and Kashmir
158 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Sikh Light Infantry – Janglot, Jammu and Kashmir
159 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Dogra Regiment – Thalela, Jammu and Kashmir
160 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Jammu and Kashmir Rifles – Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir
161 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry – Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir
162 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry – Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir
163 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Sikh Light Infantry – Hyderbeigh, Jammu and Kashmir
164 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Naga Regiment – Zakhama, Nagaland
165 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Assam Regiment– Imphal, Manipur
166 Infantry Battalion (TA) (H&H) Assam Regiment– Tezpur, Assam
172 Infantry Battalion (TA) Madras Regiment – Campbell Bay, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Engineer Regiments
173 Engineer Regiment (TA)
174 Engineer Regiment (TA) Bengal Engineer Group
175 Engineer Regiment (TA)
