New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS): As part of the rehearsal for the Jan 26 Republic Day Parade, NCC cadets from across the country are going through their final routines here, a senior official said Monday.

Around 2,070 selected cadets are attending the Republic Day Camp at the National Cadet Corps grounds in Delhi Cantonment. Of these, some 100 will be specially trained to march in the Republic Day Parade down Rajpath and to the Red Fort.

"This year, we have 2,070 cadets taking part in the Republic Day celebration. Of them, 702 are girls", said NCC Director General Lt.Gen. A. Chakravarty at a media briefing.

The NCC, a tri-services organisation comprising thed army, navy and air force units, engages youth from across the country in programmes of youth development and social service, and assisting the armed forces in a variety of adventurous tasks.

"The number of girls this time is higher than the previous two years and next year, we shall try to increase their participation", added Chakravarty.

Vice President Hamid Ansari will Tuesday officially inaugurate the camp that started Jan 1.

Lt.Gen. Chakravarty said 97 cadets from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Singapore, Russia and Kazakhstan will visit Delhi to witness the rehearsal.

He said, "We plan to reach out to more colleges and schools in states such as Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast. We also have cadets from Leh coming to the camp."

"Government is making efforts to introduce NCC in all the private and the government schools, both in urban and rural India", he said.

NCC is now 13 lakh in strength and plans to expand its number of cadets to 15 lakh in the future with its rising popularity among the youth of the country.