Visakhapatnam: Commodore Rahul Vilas Gokhale takes over command of INS Circars

Visakhapatnam: Commodore Rahul Vilas Gokhale took over command of INS Circars from Commodore K.A. Bopanna, NM on Friday.

Later, the outgoing Commanding Officer was given a farewell by the officers and sailors of INS Circars through the traditional Pulling out Ceremony. Commodore K A Bopanna is retiring from active Naval Service after an illustrious career of 35 years.

INS Circars is the oldest naval establishment on East Coast and the base depot ship providing administrative and logistics support to the Headquarters, Eastern Naval Command and a large number of units based in and around Visakhapatnam.

Commodore R V Gokhale, who will be the twenty-third Commanding Officer of INS Circars, is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1992. A Navigation and Direction specialist, he has commanded in Ships INS Khukri and INS Kolkata. His other tenures include Director Personnel Policy at Naval Headquarters, New Delhi and Naval Advisor, High Commission of India at Islamabad, Pakistan.

The officer has undergone courses at DSSC Wellington, Naval War College, Goa and the Australian Defence College Canberra. Prior to this appointment, he was Fleet Operations Officer, Eastern Fleet.