The Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the Indian Navy and Coast Guard’s joint operations facility, called the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurgaon on November 23.

Set up to provide coastal security and to avert tragic incidents like the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, the IMAC is the nodal centre of the National Command Control Communications and Intelligence Network (NC3I Network), and is a joint initiative of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and Bharat Electronics Ltd to improve coastal surveillance.

Describing it as ‘a bold initiative’ and ‘a reply of this great nation to the Mumbai attack,’ Parrikar was candid to admit that the surveillance network has still some gaps which need to be plugged. He said this is an enormous task considering the fact that there are about two-three lakh fishing boats operating in our coastlines and the active cooperation of the state governments is required to achieve one hundred per cent success. He also called for a change in mindset to correlate the data that would be available through the massive surveillance network to ensure ‘zero tolerance to error’.

Parrikar said, besides coastal security, we have to protect our interests in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Parrikar said some of our neighbours are trying to get their navies in the Indian Ocean and our Navy must be watchful of their activities. “We do not want to be offensive but we must be strong enough to deter our enemies from casting an evil eye upon us”, he said.

The NC3I Network links 51 Naval and Coast Guard stations, located along the coast and on island territories. The network provides these stations coastal surveillance information obtained from various sensors such as the coastal radar chain of the Indian Coast Guard and automatic tracking systems as well as electro-optical cameras. The entire NC3I Network has been integrated by the Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru. The project was sanctioned in March 12 and is presently fully functional. The IMAC construction began in October 12 and was completed in January 2014.

The Naval Chief Admiral R.K. Dhowan in his opening address said this project will go a long way in beefing up the maritime surveillance, thereby enhancing the National Maritime Domain Awareness Project.