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India will spend $ two billion during the next five years to establish new military bases in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Defense News has reported.
Approved by the Centre on July 5, it says, the bases will be used to monitor and counter military and terrorist activities against India, according to senior military officials.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a chain of 572 mostly uninhabited islands, which stretch for hundreds of miles in the eastern Bay of Bengal.
The command post in the islands, they said, will be India's first full-fledged military base in the region as well as its first to be run jointly by the army, navy and air force.
It is slated to be operational by August 15 although building and equipping the bases will take years.
The setting of the tri-command in the islands was long overdue, especially in the wake of the deployment of missiles, weaponry and troops in Myanmar, said Sament Harish, a former Indian Air Force officer.
The bases, the report said, will be commanded by a three-star military officer.
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