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TERRITORIAL ARMY ENSURES ENERGY SECURITY FOR MANIPUR
414 Army Service Corps Battalion Marketing(Territorial Army) is one of the battalion raised in 1983 by Govt of India to cater for handling emergencies both internal & external. The battalion is affiliated to Marketing Division & has 100 Plus employees of Indian Oil. These employees are trained by Army and Indian Oil to handle any oil installation (POL/LPG/Aviation) independently. They are also kept abreast with nuances of operating various oil locations across the country periodically.
In the wake of crisis that engulfed Manipur, the employees/ contract workers of Oil Marketing Companies were not able to reach installations due to security constraints or had to be evacuated due to ethnic violence. The installations were, therefore, either shut due to non availability of employees or, not fully operational due to shortage of manpower. This led to the operational necessity of deploying Territorial Army to manage the three vital Oil installations which were energy life line for Manipur viz. Imphal Aviation Fueling Station, Malom Bulk Oil Depot and Sekmai LPG Bottling Plant.
The battalion was tasked to take control of Oil Installations which were not operational and augment manpower where there is shortage and ensure supplies of essential POL products and Refueling of Aircrafts. True to its rich history, the battalion reached Imphal within 48 hrs of being given orders & with relentless hard work over the next 12 hrs, Malom Depot was made fully operational-Tank Trucks were dispatched, ATF Tankers decanted and several flights both civil and defence refuelled. As on date, the Depot is functioning at the same efficiency level as was existing in days preceding the crisis with more than 400 tank trucks despatched to various petrol pumps across Manipur, Manipur Police, Army & Assam Rifles units. Seeing the stupendous performance, the initial tasking was expanded & the Territorial Army Battalion was tasked to assist in the operations of Sekmai LPG Bottling Plant, 26 km from the Imphal- a task which was done with elan with approximately 8000-10000 cylinders being despatched daily.
Energy crisis howsoever short has tremendous economic second order & psychological effect apart from the immediate foreseeable first order effects & the unit worked relentlessly to prevent this from happening.
The unit was visited by Lt Gen HS Sahi, AVSM,YSM, SM, General Officer Commanding 3 Corps. General Officer commended the team for yeoman service being rendered by 414 ASC Battalion (Territorial Army) which averted a major crisis that had the potential to escalate to unfathomable levels & exhorted everyone to continue discharging their duties with the same zeal & enthusiasm in ensuring energy security for Manipur state.
