Hyderabad, Dec 25 (IANS): The first batch of the Agniveers reported at Artillery Centre, Hyderabad on Sunday after undergoing four phases of gruelling, testing, and filtering process.

It is estimated that approximately 2,500 Agniveers from all over the country will be reporting at Artillery Centre, Hyderabad by December 30, 2022 and a total of over 6,000 Agniveers will be trained by the end of year 2023.

According to a defence statement, the Agniveers were welcomed into the folds of the Indian Army with a warm reception. The Centre has already made necessary preparations to cater for such a large number of trainees. It has beefed up its infrastructure and amended its training programme to meet the needs of the Agniveers and the Army as a whole.

Under the Agnipath scheme announced by the Centre, Indian youth will be recruited as Agniveers to serve the Armed Forces for a period of four years.

The scheme launched has now taken the shape and the first batch of Agniveers have started reporting to their respective training centres. After a gap of three years, owing to Covid-19 pandemic, this is the first time that the trainees in the form of Agniveers will be trained at all the training centres across India after undergoing four phases of gruelling, testing and filtering process.