| The minister along with Army chief General J.J. Singh and Navy chief Admiral Suresh Mehta also launched the Greening India campaign to plant a million saplings across India.
The "Chalo Hyderabad" rally , comprising dozens of military vehicles, buses, cars and two-wheelers, will pass through 21 districts of Andhra Pradesh and cover a distance of 1,800 km before returning to Hyderabad on July 23.
The Thiruvananthapuram rally, flagged off by Kerala Sports, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Vijaya Kuman, will join the Hyderabad rally at Kadappa on July 11 for the final leg.
Ten teams of the armed forces, coordinated by Maj. Vivek Garg of 14 Assam, started from Thiruvananthapuram and will cover a distance of 3,500 km over 18 days passing through Kochi, Thrissur, Coimbatore, Salem, Bangalore, and Chittoor before the finish at Hyderabad.
The rallies are aimed at generating public interest in the military games, interacting with ex-servicemen and families of serving soldiers of the southern states, encouraging sports in the region and spreading the MWG theme "Friendship through Sports" to all corners.
The function also had all 11 participants of Indian Idol contest on Sony Television entertaining the Audience.
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