New Delhi: India will have two to five theatre commands by 2022, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Monday.

He pointed that in the southern part of the country, India will have a Peninsula command by integrating existing naval eastern and eastern Naval command centres and the Jammu and Kashmir would come under a single be command theatre.

The peninsula command under the Navy that will deal with maritime security should come in earlier as directive for a study is expected to be out by March 31.

It would spread from Sir Creek in the Arabian Sea to Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal.

The study should be completed within three to four months and by the end of next year the command under one naval commander should start functioning, General Rawat said.

He also said that by the end of the year a study for theaterisation or joint commands will be in place. By 2022 theatre commands should roll out. The number of theatre commands could vary from two to five, the CDS added.

The Chief of Defence Staff is mandated to set up joint commands comprising the Army, Navy and Air Force -- in addition to two existing ones.

There are 19 commands as of now and only two of these are tri-service commands. These are the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Strategic Forces Command, which is in charge of nuclear assets.

General Rawat added that there is an option of having either one command for China or two separate commands; one East of Nepal and another West of Nepal.

Similarly for Pakistan, a separate command for J&K is on the cards, while a separate one for the international border south of Jammu.

While the Army and the Air Force have seven commands each, the Navy has three commands.