kolkata for those who had formulated travel rules for the defence services the figure 1450 seems to hold a special fascination for 1450 km is the maximum distance a service officer can travel on leave with free conveyance allowance according to the travel regulations for defence servicesunder the travel rules an officer proceeding on annual leave can avail of the facility of travelling on warrant to his home town along with his family irrespective of distance once in a block of two years in the other year he and his family are entitled to a free conveyance but with the limit on distance distances which service officers cover while proceeding on leave are often much more than the maximum stipulated service officers in kolkata point out for when proceeding on leave most service officers prefer to go to their home towns as they have to stay away from home for long periodsthe distance for instance by train between jammu and kanyakumari is about 3750 km while that between guwahati and trivandram is about 3580 km according to a railway official there is an anomaly here one posted near his home town is at an advantage one who is far off suffers a service officer says officers with hometown in one of selected hill stations too have an advantage as they can avail of a hill station warrant on leavefor a long time after independence the maximum distance which one could travel on leave with conveyance was 950 km source say this however was a british legacy which the services had inherited later the maximum distance was increased to 1450 kmthe 950 km norm prevailing in britain had been enforced in india during the raaj without adapting them to the conditions of the country according to information available from the british deputy high commission in kolkata the maximum distance in the uk lengthwise is just under 1000 kms while breadth wise it is about 500 km