The training duration of National Cadet Corps (NCC) would soon be increased from present two years to three years, NCC Director General Lt Gen R K Karwal said today.

"At present we have a two-years training programme for the cadets. We think that the training, cadets get in these two years is not as good as that in the previous system when a cadet had to undergo three years of training," Karwal, who is on a two-day visit to the State, told reporters here.

"Last month there was a meeting of our Central Advisory Committee (CAC), there were lot of deliberations on this issue and then it was decided that we need to revert back to three years training for NCC cadets," he said.

Karwal said training of NCC cadets in India was probably the largest in the world, as nearly eight lakh cadets are trained every year.

"Our training is structured and is four pronged, most important being institutional training, that is the basic military training. Then comes the adventure training which helps develop qualities of leadership, courage and stamina among the cadets," he said.

"Then we have the youth exchange programme. Some of the cadets go abroad and equal number come here. Last and important aspect is the social services and community development programme," Karwal added.

Asked if the government was thinking of making NCC training compulsory in all schools and colleges, Karwal said that the preposition was difficult to implement.

"Compulsory NCC training happened after 1962 war. It was made compulsory in schools and colleges. This continued for over six years. After that the school teachers and parents decided that this was not feasible," he said.

"They said that NCC could be made compulsory, but it requires supervising staff and infrastructure for huge number of students. Besides, if such huge number of students are trained at a time, their academics could be affected," Karwal said.

"Compulsory NCC training is a good thing with lot of advantages, but its implementation is a little difficult," he added.

Karwal also said that they plan to increase the number of NCC cadets in the country from present 13 lakh to 15 lakh.

On whether NCC was planning to include a special module on terrorism in training, Karwal said, "Talking about awareness, we have done that. Information on terrorism is already included in our trainings. We give them information upto that level which is taught to first year students at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun.