Republic Day 2024: Woman officer to lead all-men Bombay Sappers contingent at the parade

Major Tyagi will be the first woman officer to lead the all-men contingent of the Bombay Sappers at the Republic Day parade as the Contingent Commander.

Major Tyagi, who is a B Tech in Civil Engineering and married to an army officer, is presently posted at Bombay Engineering Group and Centre, Khadki in Pune district. She passed out of the Officers Training Academy, Chennai as Academy Cadet Adjutant and become a Bombay Sapper in September 2016.

The Bombay Engineer Group, or the Bombay Sappers as they are informally known, is a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army.

The Bombay Sappers draw their origin from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency army of the British Raj. The group has its centre in Khadki.

Though the Sappers trace their ancestry back to 1777, when the Pioneer Lascars were raised under the Bombay Presidency, the date of raising of the Group is taken as 1820, when Engineer Lascars were raised and formed into a company designated as ‘Sappers and Miners’ under the Bombay Army.

The Bombay Engineering Group is the proud recipient of the highest gallantry awards, both before and after the Independence. These include the Victoria Cross, the Medaille Militaire, the Param Vir Chakra and the Ashok Chakra.