6.12.11

Hyderabad NSG hub inaugurated



Union home minister P Chidambaram inaugurated National Security Guard (NSG)’s first regional hub, in Hyderabad on Monday. With the launch of the facility, an NSG team from Hyderabad can now be airborne in 64 minutes flat to tackle any terror-related emergency in Andhra Pradesh or neighbouring states. This NSG regional hub is the first in the country to be inaugurated with permanent infrastructure and advanced training facilities. The National Building Construction Company (NBCC) took four months to build the centre in Tirumalgherry on 22 acres of land. The project cost the exchequer Rs 37.96 crore. Chidambaram gave a sequential description of the NSG’s promptness. “The team will be off the campus in 19 minutes, reach Hakeempet airbase in 15 minutes and, 30 minutes later, they will be airborne in a special aircraft,” the home minister said. In the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the Union government had proposed to set up four regional NSG hubs — in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad — to nationally counter any terror strikes by reducing the response time in dispatching a commando unit. Talking about the operational skills of NSG personnel, the home minister said: “The commando unit is one of the best in the world and has come a long way since the Mumbai counter terror operation when we realised that the NSG lacked proper communication infrastructure.”He said skill and infrastructure development was a constant process and advised NSG officials to visit countries like Russia and France to learn urban counter-terror techniques from their crack commando forces.Chidambaram said that the government would soon be starting canine training and breeding centre to exclusively cater to the needs of security forces. He said that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) alone requires 3,000 dogs to carry out security checks as part of their routine duties across the nation.

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