CISF transitions to functional sector architecture to strengthen security

New Delhi, The Central Industrial Security Force on Sunday said it has transitioned from a territorial command model to a functional sector architecture, bringing together units of one kind under a single umbrella to ensure better security for the country's strategic and economic assets.

The move will have an effect on various sectors whose installations are guarded by the central force, including power, coal, steel, petroleum and natural gas, government buildings, museums, monuments, seaports, apart from mass rapid transit systems like the Delhi Metro.

"Effective today, the CISF has officially transitioned its supervisory architecture from a territorial command model to a highly specialised, functional sector model," the force said in a statement.

"This landmark restructuring, rolled out with the concurrence of the Ministry of Home Affairs, represents a strategic reset aimed at elevating national security, enhancing force preparedness, and securing the critical infrastructure essential to the vision of a Viksit Bharat," it added.

The CISF was formed in 1969 and has an estimated strength of about 2.70 lakh personnel at present. It is tasked with guarding vital installations in the public and private domain, apart from more than 70 civil airports, and also in the nuclear and aerospace sectors.

Till now, the field and administrative bases of the CISF were structured on the basis of territorial jurisdiction, where the security deployment of the force was mixed. For example, a particular field formation used to handle both power and coal sector units.

CISF units guarding the space, atomic energy and airports were an exception and have been under a single command.

"The principle driving this reform is that security must be organised not just around where an asset is located, but what it does and what its disruption would mean for the country," the statement stated.

The change has redesignated the forces' Western Sector headquartered in Mumbai and the Southern Sector based in Chennai as the West Coast Port Sector and the East Coast Port Sector, respectively, a senior officer had told PTI.

In 2025, the Union government designated CISF as the nodal seaports security force and authorised it as the Recognised Security Organisation for this domain.

The force will have a total of 11 sectors.

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