Lt Gen Manoj Pande to take over as Army chief on May 1

Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was on Monday appointed as the next chief of the Indian Army. He will assume office on May 1.

He is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff. He will succeed General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who is scheduled to complete his 28 month-tenure on April 30.

"Government has decided to appoint Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff," the Defence officials told news agency ANI.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Lt Gen Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982.

He commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, during which large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons at the western border was carried out followed the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.