Military Engineer Services

Military Engineer Services is one of the oldest and largest government defense infrastructure development agency in India. It is mainly employed in the engineering and construction for the Indian Armed Forces including the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Indian Ordnance Factories, DRDO and the Indian Coast Guard.

Military Engineer Services

Formation	26 September 1923
Type	Government Organisation
Location	New Delhi
Region	India
Engineer-In-Chief	Lt. Gen. Sanjeev Kumar Srivastava
Director General (Personnel)	Shri Vinay Kulkarni, IDSE
Website	www.mes.gov.in

Besides conventional building construction for the Armed Forces, Military Engineer Services is also involved in the execution of sophisticated and complex projects like airfields, buildings, workshops, roads, sports complex, runways, hangars, dockyards, wharves and other marine structures.

Military Engineer Services has also been entrusted with the construction of the National War Memorial (India) and National War Museum.

MES is an Inter Service Organisation but has both Army and Civilian component of officers and other subordinate staff. While execution of all construction works is through contracts, execution of all maintenance services are both through contracts as well as departmentally employed labour (DEL).[1]

Army officers from The Corps of Engineers, form the Military component of the organisation whereas the IDSE (Indian Defence Service Engineers) and IDCMS (Indian Defence Contract Management Service) or Surveyor cadre, selected through prestigious Indian Engineering Services conducted by UPSC, Architect cadre and Barrack/Stores cadre form the Civilian Cadre of the organisation. Both the Civilian and the Military components together are responsible for the efficient working of this organisation.

Indian Defence Service of Engineers (IDSE)

Indian Defence Service of Engineers (IDSE) is a highly prestigious engineering services who are the backbone of the infrastructure of the Indian Armed Forces and are selected through the prestigious Indian Engineering Services examination conducted by UPSC and initially posted as Assistant Director(staff appointment) or Assistant Garrison Engineer (executive appointment) and then promoted up to Director General (Pers)(HAG level post). These officers, when on an executive appointment, are responsible for overall functioning of their offices by way of providing B/R or E/m services in garrison or on project, While on staff appointment they are associated with planning, structural design, legal and pers matters.

Offrs who are promoted to EE from AE(departmental promote from JE level) automatically become part of IDSE Gp A services.

Military Officers (Corps of Engineers)

Corps of Engineers Officers along with the Military Junior Engineers and Clerical staff form the Military Cadre in the MES. The officers, JCOs and other ranks are posted to MES Establishments on Tenures. Officers tenate appointments ranging from Assistant Garrison Engineers to Engineer-in-Chief.

Indian Defence Contract Management Service (IDCMS)

Indian Defence Contract Management Service (IDCMS) or surveyor cadre is a highly prestigious Grp 'A' service, recruited through the prestigious Indian Engineering Services examination conducted by UPSC. They are responsible for all the financial matters including Procurement, Tendering, Contract Management, Dispute Resolution, Arbitration and quantity surveying. These officers are posted as Assistant Garrison Engineer(Contracts) and promoted up to Additional Director General (Contracts)(HAG level post).

Architect Cadre

Architect cadre officers are responsible for producing the architectural drawings of various buildings and other structures. These officers are posted as Assistant Architect and promoted up to Additional Director General (Arch.)

Barrack & Stores Cadre

The Barrack Service Cadre is as old as Military Engineer Services though it remained under the Control of respective Station Commanders in the initial years during pre-independence era.The Barrack Organisation was originally introduced in 1946 to build up a service of the Barrack Department on the British Army Pattern, eventually to place it under the Army Service Corps as in United Kingdom. Special Army Order 5/S/48 was issued setting up the Barrack Service by the MES to be ultimately transferred to the OC Station for Revenue Duties. Thus the cadre was responsible to two authorities, one to the MES for furniture and stores and the other to the Station Commander for revenue duties such as handing/taking over of buildings, submission of occupation/vacation returns, issue Licence Fee Bills, recovery of rent & allied charges from paying consumers in occupation of defence land/buildings etc. The position was reviewed during 1949 and a Memorandum of Procedure, Organisation and Duties of Barrack Services was issued in July 1949. Accordingly, Barrack Services was made responsible for Revenue duties and responsibility of billing was transferred from Station Commander to the BO function independently under Commander Works Engineers. Barrack & Store Branch provides Barrack services in addition to procuring, accounting, stocking/preserving and issuing of stores, both for works and maintenance. Barrack services include handing/taking over of buildings to/from units & officers/staff and providing & maintaining technical & married accn furniture. These services also include regular billing for rent, water and electricity consumed by service personnel, civilian officers/staff & private parties and charging for barrack damages whenever occur.The B/S officers are posted as Barrack Stores OFFICER and promoted up to PRINCIPAL BARRACK STORES OFFICER.

Origin

The Military Engineers was created and brought under the unified control of Engineer-in-Chief by the then Hon'ble Secretary of State of India by unification Royal Corps of Engineers Personnel and Civilian Staff in 26 September 1923.

Since then MES Day is celebrated on 26 September every year.

Zones

The Military Engineer Services consists of the following zones:[2]-

CCE (ARMY) NO 1 DINJAN	CCE (ARMY) NO 2 MISSAMARI	CCE (ARMY) NO 3 NARANGI
CCE (COD) NEW DELHI	CCE (NEP) CHABUA	CE (AF) ALLAHABAD
CE (AF) BANGALORE	CE (AF) GANDHINAGAR	CE (AF) NAGPUR
CE (AF) SHILLONG	CE (AF) UDHAMPUR	CE (AF) WAC PALAM
CE (FY) HYDERABAD	CE ANDAMAN NICOBAR ZONE	CE BAREILLY
CE BATHINDA	CE BHOPAL	CE CHANDIGARH
CE CHENNAI	CE DELHI	CE JABALPUR
CE JAIPUR	CE JALANDHAR	CE JODHPUR
CE KOLKATA	CE LEH	CE LUCKNOW
CE NAVY KOCHI	CE NAVY MUMBAI	CE NAVY VIZAG
CE PATHANKOT	CE PUNE	CE RD DELHI
CE RD SECUNDERABAD	CE SE FALLS SHILLONG	CE SILIGURI
CE SRINAGAR	CE UDHAMPUR	DGNP MUMBAI
DGNP VIZAG	National War Museum and Memorial

CE- Chief Engineer, CCE- Command Chief Engineer, AF- Air Force

See also

• Indian Engineering Services
• UPSC

References

1. "MES | Department Of Defence". mod.gov.in. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
2. "Military Engineer Services". mes.gov.in. Retrieved 26 September 2017.