National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence Centre (NC3I)

Why in news?

• The Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for maritime data fusion set up after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, will soon become a National Maritime Domain Awareness (NDMA) centre
• It will thus become a multi-agency centre with all representatives having role in maritime security having a representation.

About NC3I network:

• National Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence Centre (NC3I) is a maritime security project.
• It was launched soon after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, when Pakistani terrorists managed to reach the city undetected due to gaps in coastal surveillance.
• It enables round-the-clock surveillance of Indian coastline by radars, high-definition electro optic cameras, maritime surveillance aircraft and satellites.
• It connects 20 naval and 31 coast guard stations along the coast.
• It also gets data from Automatic Identification System (AIS) installed on fishing vessels as also the World Shipping Register which has data of foreign or indian vessels passing through Indian waters.
• Under the system 46 coastal radar stations at strategic locations in all the nine littoral states continuously monitor sea lanes.
• These stations in turn relay information to six core centres located in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Mumbai, Chennai, Port Blair, Visakhapatnam and Kochi.
• Final information is sent to Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) of the navy set up at Gurugram for analysis.

IMAC:

• Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) is the Command Centre or nodal centre of the NC3I network.
• Approved by the Defence Acquisition Council in 2012, the IMAC became operational in 2014 at a cost of ?450 crore and is located in Gurugram.
• An officer sitting at his console in the Gurgaon centre can access real time information on his computer screen about traffic of ships and boats in his designated zone, be it waters of Chennai or remote islands in Andaman & Nicobar
• It uses a customised, state of the art ‘Decision making or Decision support software’  which enables analysing various inputs and disseminating them among concerned agencies to ensure a gapless surveillance of the entire coastline.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following statements:
1.Indian coastline is more than 6000 kilometre long.
2.Indian coast guard operated under Ministry of defence.
Which among the above statements is/are correct?
(a)1 only 
(b)2 only 
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question