Indian Railways Disbands Five Territorial Army Regiments

Indian Railways has decided to disband five Railway Engineer Territorial Army Regiments located at Jhansi, Kota, Adra, Chandigarh and Secunderabad while retaining the Railway Engineer Regiment at Jamalpur for operational roles along the New Jalpaiguri-Siliguri-Newmal-Alipurduar-Rangiya route.

A committee of three Executive Directors/Principal Executive Director was constituted to review the existing functional establishment of six Railway Engineer Territorial Army Regiments located at Jamalpur, Jhansi, Kota, Adra, Chandigarh and Secunderabad. The committee re-assessed the operational requirements of the regiments.

According to the railways, on the basis of the recommendations of the committee and with the concurrence of the Ministry of Defence and Directorate General of Territorial Army (DGTA), the Railways Ministry has decided to disband five Railway Engineer Territorial Army Regiments.

Railway Engineer Regiment at Jamalpur has been retained for the operational role along the route New Jalpaiguri-Siliguri-Newmal-Alipurduar-Rangiya (361 km) to cover the critical rail link through Siliguri corridor and further up to Rangiya as proposed by Ministry of Defence.

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 on 3 June 2022 and the modalities for the same are to be worked out by DGTA in consultation with Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Defence.