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Bangalore, Aug 12: The Army Service Corps (ASC) centre (North) will be re-located to Bangalore from Gaya in Bihar to train more officers and to meet their shortfall in the Indian Army.

The million-strong Indian army currently faces a shortage of over 11,000 officers.

"We will relocate the northern division of the ASC within a year to have all its units at one location and expand its operations to train about 40 percent more officers to meet the shortage," Chief of the Army Staff General V.K. Singh told reporters here Thursday.

In place of the ASC centre, the army will set up its second Officers' Training Academy at Gaya to train officers of the Short Service Commission (SSC) and ensure its presence and the benefits that accrue to the people and the state.

The expanded ASC centre in Bangalore will be able to train about 5,000 officers at a time, 2,000 more than its present strength of 3,000 officers.

The ASC centre and College has about 400 acres of land at Iblur on the outer ring road in the southern suburb of the city.

"The re-location of such a strategic facility will mean a lot because wherever Army goes, there will be concurrent economic benefits to the city and the state," Singh said on the sidelines of a function here.

The army had applied for more land to the state government for re-locating the ASC centre and leverage its other facilities present in this city to provide advanced training to its officers.

"We are trying to see what more we can generate from the ASC with all its units at one place. The new academy at Gaya will be as big as ASC," Singh said after presenting certificates to 28 ex-servicemen, who completed a 10-day assistive device course from the Chennai-based Callidie Motor Works, which manufactures special wheel chairs for the physically challenged.

As the grand old administrative service of the army, the ASC is the logistics arm of the Indian armed forces, carrying supplies, including arms and ammunition, food and clothes to the troops located on the borders and cantonments across the country.

The ASC centre (South) has been present in Bangalore since 1947. The Army School of Mechanical Transport (ASMT) was shifted to Bangalore from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh in 1976 while the ASC school at Bareilly, also in Uttar Pradesh, was merged with the ASC centre and ASMT in May 1999.

The ASC centre (North) was shifted to Gaya in 1976 from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where it was set up in 1947. Apart from hiring freshers, the centre has been training officers, including junior commissioned officers and other ranks.

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