The Cochin command became a full naval command on 26 October 1977 and has been the Navy's Training Command since 1 July 1986.
From Cochin Command to full command in 1977
On 26 October 1977, the Press Information Bureau announced that the Southern Naval Area, headquartered at Cochin, had been raised to a full naval command at par with Western and Eastern. Rear Admiral V.E.C. Barboza was promoted Vice Admiral and reappointed as its first Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
The base had an older history. Commodore M.H.St.L. Nott, who was killed in an air crash near Corsica on 27 March 1948, had served as Naval Officer-in-Charge, Cochin, and helped plan the naval base there.
With effect from 1 March 1968, the Cochin Command was re-designated the Southern Naval Area under a Commodore. The appointment was raised to Rear Admiral in 1970.
Training Command from 1986
The 1977 note already gave the command responsibility for basic and specialist training, and made Cochin home to the Training Squadron of a cruiser and three frigates. It also named the command the parent of naval aviation, with air bases at Cochin and Goa. Its operational area ran south from about the latitude of Goa and west from the Palk Straits, taking in the Lakshadweep islands.
On 1 July 1986 the command became the Navy's Training Command, with training establishments placed under it. Its headquarters are at INS Venduruthy on Willingdon Island, Kochi.
Ezhimala and sea training
The Naval Academy began in temporary accommodation at Kochi and moved to INS Mandovi at Goa in 1986. The Indian Naval Academy found its permanent home at Ezhimala, Kerala, where it was inaugurated on 8 January 2009. President Ram Nath Kovind presented it with the President's Colour on 20 November 2019.
INS Garuda at Kochi, commissioned on 11 May 1953, was the Navy's first air station.
Cover image: Indian Navy, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:INS_Venduruthy_(indiannavy.nic.in)_01.jpg