Why INA (INDIAN NAVAL ACADEMY) was established so late?
In this article we have explain INA - INDIAN NAVAL ACADEMY establishment and the constraints which delayed the process.
Before Independence
Before independence, officer cadets of the Royal Indian Navy were trained in the United Kingdom with the Royal Navy.
Joint Services Wing (JSW)
In 1949, the officer training for the Navy began at the interim Joint Services Wing (JSW) of the Armed Forces Academy later the National Defence Academy (NDA) was established in 1954 as the Joint Services academy of the Indian Armed Forces.
By 1968, the Navy realized that the NDA could not keep up with its expanding staffing requirements so in May 1969, the Indian Naval Academy was established in Cochin to consolidate facilities for naval training.
Indian Naval Academy at Cochin
The academy was consolidated with the Officers training school, at INS Mandovi in Goa in 1986 but with the growing use of INS Mandovi as an operational naval base, Academy operated under considerable space constraints.
In 1979, the Government of India approved the development of a new campus for the Indian Naval Academy. The sites considered for the new Naval Academy were:
1. Aruvankadu near the Pykara Dam Lake in the Nilgiri Hills.
2. A site near the Bhatghar Dam situated off the Pune-Kolhapur highway.
3. Hassergate Lake near Bangalore.
4. Porbandar on the Saurashtra coast.
5. Chengalpattu on the Tamil Nadu coast near Chennai.
6. A site near north of Kannur on the Kerala coast.
Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala
The Government of Kerala was keen to host the academy in the state and offered the Navy 960 hectares at Ezhimala. In 1982, the Central Government approved the construction of the academy at Ezhimala.
After delays in land acquisition, the foundation stone for the academy was laid by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on 17 January 1987 but in the wake of the 1991 India economic crisis the construction was further delayed.
On 6 April 2005, the naval base depot INS Zamorin was commissioned as a part of Phase I of the academy at Ezhimala.
Finally on 8 January 2009 the Indian Naval Academy, was inaugurated by then prime minister Manmohan Singh.