Under Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal’s leadership, the Indian Railways today launched its first commando force- Commandos for Railway Safety (CORAS). At a function in New Delhi today, Goyal inducted the CORAS and promised to set up a commando training centre in Haryana for the purpose of training and modernising the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
As per Piyush Goyal, the maiden commando force of the Indian Railways would be deployed in Naxal-prone belts, Jammu and Kashmir and North East.
Goyal said, “These CORAS commandos will be posted in Left extremist wing affected areas, northeastern region and Jammu and Kashmir where providing security to the passengers and the railway network is of utmost priority.
A new state-of-the-art commando training centre for RPF will be started in Jagadhri (in Haryana) which will have access to latest technology and equipment.”
The minister further said that the RPF’s crack commando team which consists of 1,200 officers will get the most modern equipment and world-class training. “This will help train the other 60,000-65,000 fellow officers of RPF,” he added.
Earlier, Arun Kumar, Director General, Railways Protection Force (RPF), had reiterated that CORAS will be deployed in critical areas of the country such as Jammu & Kashmir, Naxal-prone areas and North eastern states like Manipur and Tripura.
The Railways board, which is the apex administrative body of all Zonal Railways, had issued directives to all the 18 zones, requiring setting up of the CORAS, in order to deal with the security challenges faced in major urban centres. As per officials, the CORAS would comprise of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) personnel. Headed by the RPF Director General, the commandos will don special uniforms and will be equipped with bullet proof jackets, helmets and sophisticated weapons.
As per Kumar, RPF Director General, 14 battalions of the RPSF and one RPF battalion have been converted into CORAS. It is going to be a well trained commando unit. Kumar said that the commandos have been trained at the NSG Academy and Greyhounds. The commandos of the newly launched unit will be undergoing training programmes including both basic and advanced commando training courses with specialisation in handling landmines and improvised explosive devices (IED), hostage rescue, sniping and breaching.
This is going to be a major boost for the Indian Railways as far as the safety of its infrastructure and passengers is concerned. It puts the Indian Railways in a totally different league. The national transporter can now assure the passengers of high safety level matching world-class standards during rail travel, especially in the sensitive areas of the country. Under Piyush Goyal’s leadership, the Indian Railways has achieved many milestones. In fact, 2018 was hailed as the year of any firsts for the national carrier. First Railway University was inaugurated in 2018 and Train 18 (now Vande Bharat Express), India’s first indigenously built engine-less train came into picture for the first time in 2018 and was later launched in February 2019. These were only some of the milestones among several others. And now the Railways has added another first to its list as it is all set to launch its first commando unit. With Piyush Goyal at the helm of affairs, the Railways continues to impress.