Gaya’s Officers Training Academy to shut down

Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centre will relocate there

The Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya is being shut down as it is not used to its full potential and the Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centre, which is strapped for space at Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, will shift there, Army sources said.

“It is not closure. It is relocation,” a senior source said. The OTAs in Chennai and Gaya are under-utilised now because the intake has increased though other schemes like the Technical Entry Scheme (TES).

The OTA, Gaya, was set up in 2011. The officer cadets there will be trained at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

By shifting the Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centre to Gaya, the Centre was supposed to build a new regimental Centre. This move will save expenses and also enable utilization of readily available infrastructure.

At present, the Rajput and Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centres are co-located at Fatehpur. Both have expanded over time and are now pressed for space. To address the problem, the Army has acquired 150 acres at Sitapur for a new Sikh Light Regimental Centre. “Instead of spending ₹1,000 crore, why not move to Gaya,” the source said.

Regimental Centres require a large parade ground for training and other facilities, which are readily available in Gaya. Once the Sikh Light Infantry Regimental Centre moves to Gaya, the Rajput regiment can take over the full space at Fatehpur.