New Delhi: Lieutenant General Manoj Pande has become the first engineer to be appointed as the new Army chief, news agency ANI reported.
Manoj Pande, the current vice-chief of the Army, will take over from General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who will retire by the end of this month. General Naravane's 28-month stint is set to end on April 30.
Pande will be the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to take over as Chief of Army Staff.
“Government has decided to appoint Lt Gen Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff,” the Defence Ministry said on Monday.
Pande, a National Defence Academy graduate, joined the Corps of Engineers in December 1982.
During Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt General Manoj Pande commanded an engineer regiment.
The large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western border, known as Operation Parakram, followed the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament, which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
Lt General Pande has commanded an engineer brigade in the Western Theatre, an infantry brigade along the LoC, a mountain division in the Ladakh sector, and a corps in the northeast during his 39-year military career.
Before taking command of the Eastern Command, he was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.
However, no decision has been taken on the next Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). The post has been lying vacant ever since the last CDS, General Bipin Rawat, died in a chopper crash in December last year.