Visakhapatnam: Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN), arrived in Visakhapatnam on July 20 on a maiden three-day visit to Eastern Naval Command (ENC) accompanied by Ms Archana Pande, President, Defence Wives Welfare Association (DWWA).

He will call on Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) ENC on July 22 and discuss operational issues. Later, he would be briefed on the responsibilities of the Command and other operational activities of the Indian Navy on the Eastern Seaboard.

Lt Gen Pande took over as the 15th Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman & Nicobar Command on June 1. The General Officer was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982, and is a graduate of Staff College in United Kingdom and attended the Higher Command Course at Army War College, Mhow and the National Security Studies Course at National Defence College, New Delhi.

During his 37 years of distinguished service, the General Officer has taken an active part in Operation Vijay and Operation Parakram. He commanded an Engineer Regiment along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, an Engineers Brigade as part of a Strike Corps, an Infantry Brigade along the Line of Control, a Mountain Division in the High Altitude Area of Western Ladakh and a Corps deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as also in Counter Insurgency Operations area in the Northeast.

The visit assumes importance in the current geo-political scenario in which the Eastern Naval Command and the Andaman and Nicobar Command have to act in close cooperation with each other.