Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor arrived here on a day’s visit on Monday afternoon.
General Kapoor, accompanied by his wife Kirti Kapoor, arrived by an Indian Air Force helicopter at the Recreation Grounds near the Alappuzha Beach by 12.15 p.m., where he was received by District Collector P. Venugopal, District Superintendent of Police E. Divakaran and others.
General Kapoor then headed for the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) Polyclinic run by the Ministry of Defence at Kalarcode, where he spent about 20 minutes, inspecting the facilities. In a brief chat with reporters, General Kapoor said the plans for a full-fledged hospital for ex-servicemen, which was at present hampered by land acquisition issues, would move forward once the State government handed over the land to the Defence Ministry.
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The Army Chief then left for a two-hour houseboat cruise on the Vembanad Lake, for which he boarded a fully secured houseboat from the Punnamada Finishing Point. He is expected to leave for Kochi by 5 p.m.