Manipur: Territorial Army ensures security to energy fields amid impending crisis rising from ethnic clashes

The Territorial Army of the 414 Army Service Corps Battalion Marketing successfully took control of the oil installations in Manipur amid crisis led by the ethnic clashes in the state that begun on May 3.

414 Army Service Corps Battalion Marketing(Territorial Army) is one of the battalion raised in 1983 by Government of India to cater for handling emergencies both internal & external. 

The battalion is affiliated to Marketing Division and 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.  

Oil Marketing Company employees had to be evacuated due to ethnic violence or were unable to reach installations due to security concerns following the Manipur crisis.

As a result, the installations were either not fully operational due to a lack of personnel or they were closed. This prompted the functional need of sending Regional Armed force to deal with the three fundamental Oil establishments which were energy life line for Manipur viz. Malom Bulk Oil Depot, Imphal Aviation Fueling Station, and Sekmai LPG Bottling Plant

The battalion was given the responsibility of taking control of oil installations that were not working, adding workers where there was a shortage, making sure that essential POL products were available, and refueling aircraft. In keeping with its extensive history, the battalion reached Imphal within 48 hours of receiving orders. Over the next 12 hours, it worked tirelessly to make Malom Depot fully operational, dispatching tank trucks, decanting ATF tankers, and refueling several civil and military flights.

As on date, the Warehouse is working at a similar productivity level as existed in days going before the emergency with in excess of 400 tank trucks dispatched to different petroleum siphons across Manipur, Manipur Police, Armed force and Assam Rifles units. The Territorial Army Battalion was given the additional responsibility of assisting in the operations of the Sekmai LPG Bottling Plant, which is 26 kilometers from Imphal. This was a task that was accomplished with elan, with approximately 8000–10.000 cylinders being delivered daily.

In addition to the immediate, foreseeable first-order effects, an energy crisis, regardless of how brief, has significant economic and psychological effects. The unit worked tenaciously to keep this from occurring.

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 and exhorted everyone to continue discharging their duties with the same zeal and enthusiasm in ensuring energy security for Manipur state.

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