Corps of Electrical & Mechanical Engineers

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CORPS OF ELECTRICAL & MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

Karam Hi Dharam

The history of the Corps, born on 01 May 1943, is indeed glorious. Over these past five decades, the Corps has, with remarkable speed, welded itself into a fine and efficient organisation. It is imbued with requisite zeal and determination to overcome, if necessary by improvisation, all the impediments it faces in the rapidly changing technological environment. The efficacy with which an organisation performs its role is dependent to a large degree upon the sense of union developed amongst its elements – the esprit de corps. These 56 years have built up traditions and relationships of a lasting kind. These have sustained amongst its troops the concept of honour, courage, fidelity to the organisation, professional integrity and a pride in developing technical skills.

The Corps is responsible for providing engineering support to all electrical, mechanical & optical instruments (light vehicles, tanks, guns, missiles, radars, computers, helicopters, communication equipment, night vision devices, simulators) of the Army. Over the years there has been phenomenal rise in the sophistication, quantum & variety of military hardware and workshops are organised by the Corps to carry out these repairs and inspections. Recovery of all damaged vehicles is also the responsibility of the Corps. The Corps has effectively met the challenges arising from the proliferation of such multi-disciplinary high technology military hardware through continuous evolution of its engineering support system. Recovery of all damaged vehicles is also the responsibility of the Corps.

There are some schools of thought which maintain that war is just a fight between soldiers in combat arms; this is not the case. It is true that an army is a fighting machine, but there are three basic needs if it is to achieve its full potential in battle – leadership, equipment and training. Wars involve the employment of a great deal of modern and sophisticated equipment and the EME plays a major role in assisting the Army’s posture of operational preparedness and combat effectiveness to win any war. If combat arms are the teeth of the Army then EME has a vital function of keeping them sharp. Through the war and the many operations that the Indian Army undertook over the past five decades, the Corps has proven itself as a first class repair, recovery and in many cases as a design and development organisation. It is actively involved in counter insurgency operations both in Jammu & Kashmir and in North-East.