The Defence Minister Arun Jaitley today unveiled the foundation stone for HQ Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) Building Complex at Mehramnagar, Delhi Cantt. Speaking on this occasion, Shri Jaitley said, since its inception, Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff has played a pivotal role in building synergy and consensus through intra-service deliberations and ensuring optimisation of resources through rightful prioritisation for procurements, joint doctrines, joint training and common procedures. He commended the Armed Forces for their devotion to duty and stellar role played by them in safeguarding our country’s unity and persity. He further said that in future almost all operations, be they inland or overseas, invariably going to be Tri-Service operations. Developing synergy between the services to achieve optimum force application therefore attains utmost importance, he remarked.
Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh, in his welcome address briefly dwelt upon the history and origin of the IDS set up. He said, based on the Kargil Review Committee Report and subsequent recommendation of the Group of Ministers, the Integrated Defence Staff was set up by the Government of India in October 2001. He said that the aim of forming Integrated Defence Staff was to provide a secretariat to the Chairman COSC (Chief of Defence Staff / Permanent Chairman Chief of Staff when appointed), facilitate constitution of Defence Crisis Management Group (DCMG), coordination of financial and budgetary proposals for the three services and presenting coordinated set of proposals to the Defence Minister. It is also chartered to coordinate and analyse critical deficiencies in force capabilities and render periodic reports to Defence Minister on the need for structural and organizational changes taking note of alterations in the nature of threats, he added.
The proposed multi-storied IDS building complex situated near NSG HQ in Mehramnagar, Delhi Cantt. will come up over an area of 10.57 acres of land. The complex will consist of Office Building, Officers Mess Complex, Signal Intelligence (SI) Directorate, Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS), HQ IDS Camp and Sports Complex. The ultra-modern green complex will have many novel features, which include Library cum reading room, Information Technology and communication rooms, Special Section on International Defence Cooperation/Dte of Net Assessment, Meditation room/training cum motivation hall and Security posts with all latest equipment including vehicle scanners and IRIS scan etc. Among others the function was attended by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Defence Secretary Shri RK Mathur and CISC Lt Gen Anil Chait.