Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will preside over the Defence Estates Day celebrations at Raksha Sampada Bhawan in Delhi Cantonment on December 16, marking the entry of the Defence Estates Department into its 100th year. During the event, the Defence Minister will confer the Raksha Mantri Awards for Excellence in public service in the fields of Defence Land Management and Municipal Administration to 61 Cantonment Boards across the country.
This year’s celebrations hold special significance as the Department commemorates a century of service, with its origins tracing back to 1765 when the first cantonment was established in Barrackpore, West Bengal. Over time, cantonments such as Danapur, Meerut, Ambala and Delhi played a key role in shaping defence and land administration in India. The Department was formally constituted on December 16, 1926, as the Department of Land and Cantonments under the Ministry of Defence.
The Defence Estates Department currently manages the largest landholding under the Government of India within the Ministry of Defence. While rooted in a long historical legacy, the Department has undergone significant modernisation, emerging as a leader in digital and technology-enabled land management.
The Department has implemented the E-Chhawani project, enabling 100 per cent online municipal services for nearly 20 lakh cantonment residents. Its initiatives in water conservation and rejuvenation of water bodies have received national recognition, including the National Water Award for Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari.
In recent years, the Department has completed the digitisation of legacy land records to ensure their long-term preservation. Its file management system has also been modernised through nationwide adoption of a secure, technology-backed platform, allowing seamless retrieval and safe archival. A centralised software platform, ‘Raksha Bhoomi’, now functions as a unified repository of defence land records.
The Department has also developed advanced capabilities in land surveying through the use of Continuously Operating Reference Stations-enabled Differential Global Positioning System, GIS-based tools and high-resolution satellite imagery. In addition, a Centre of Excellence on Satellite and Unmanned Remote Vehicle initiatives has been set up, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to build next-generation solutions for defence land management.
