Neeraj Thakur
New Delhi: The Army chief, General Dhiraj Seth, will shift his office from South Block to the Army’s new headquarters, Shaurya Bhavan, in Delhi Cantonment by the end of November. He will be accompanied by the vice chief and the seven principal staff officers (PSOs), who head the Army Headquarters’ main branches.
The Navy chief, Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, will also leave South Block along with his vice chief and PSOs. The Navy’s top brass will move to Sena Bhavan, which stands directly behind South Block.
The Navy already has a headquarters in the cantonment. Nausena Bhavan was inaugurated on March 15, 2024, by the defence minister, Rajnath Singh, and was described by the Ministry of Defence as the service’s first independent headquarters in Delhi.
The ministry said at the time that the Navy had earlier worked from 13 locations in the capital. A larger Navy complex was originally planned next to the headquarters of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), but the service has been asked to give up that site under the central government's redevelopment plan.
The Army’s operational nerve centre is also set to move. According to sources, the office of the director general of military operations (DGMO) and the Army’s war room will be relocated. It is not yet clear where the Navy’s war room will go, as it needs extensive infrastructure and technological support.
South Block has housed the headquarters of both services for decades, with each chief working from the building. Officers of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), including the director general of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), will leave as well.
The Ministry of Defence has temporarily shifted to Kartavya Bhavan 2. It will move permanently to Kartavya Bhavan 6 and 7 once those buildings are completed. At present, only the chief of defence staff (CDS) has an office in Kartavya Bhavan 2.
Until the new buildings are ready, the Army chief will have to travel from Delhi Cantonment to meet the defence minister and other senior officials there. Kartavya Bhavan 6 and 7 will also house additional offices for the service chiefs.
Part of the Central Vista rebuild
The relocation follows the wider shift of government offices out of the secretariat blocks on Raisina Hill. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the new Prime Minister's Office complex, Seva Teerth, along with Kartavya Bhavan 1 and 2 on February 13, 2026. The two Kartavya Bhavans house several ministries, including Defence, Finance, Health and Law.
Under the Central Vista plan, buildings 6, 7 and 8 of the new central secretariat are meant to form a “Defence Enclave”. It is to bring together the Ministry of Defence, the DRDO and offices of all three services, with the aim of improving coordination and security. The buildings are being built on the sites of the old Vice-President’s Enclave and the Vigyan Bhawan Annexe.
South Block and North Block were completed in 1931 to a design by the British architect Herbert Baker. The government plans to convert them into a museum, Yuge Yugeen Bharat.
The Army’s move also ends a long period of dispersal. When the foundation stone for a new Army Headquarters complex in Delhi Cantonment was laid in February 2020, its offices were spread over eight pockets of the capital, including South Block, Sena Bhavan, the hutments area near India Gate, RK Puram and Shankar Vihar. Delhi Cantonment, set up by the British in 1914, covers about 10,500 acres in south-west Delhi.
