India's intelligence hub NatGrid gets nod from green body, hurdles remain
Two years after the laying of the foundation stone for the proposed complex, a top environment watchdog has given its nod to build the facility, but it carries as many as 82 conditions to ensure proper pollution control, electronic waste disposal and radiation control.
The headquarters of India's ambitious but much-delayed counter-terrorism programme-National Intelligence Grid or NatGrid-would be a high-tech, three-storey building in south Delhi where 400 officials could work round the clock to detect and foil attacks. But the full-fledged rolling out of NatGrid remains caught in red tape even as 26/11 terror attacks, in which 166 people were killed, prominently figured during high-level talks between India and Pakistan on Wednesday.
Two years after the laying of the foundation stone for the proposed complex, a top environment watchdog has given its nod to build the facility, but it carries as many as 82 conditions to ensure proper pollution control, electronic waste disposal and radiation control, Mail Today has learnt.
Legal action would be initiated if construction is started without necessary clearances such as those for fire and structural safety, the watchdog has warned.
Conceived after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks which many in the security establishment believe could have been averted but for delayed scattered intelligence, NatGrid, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has remained stuck in red tape. Two of the four phases of the entire programme (not just the building) were to be completed by 2014 at Rs 1,100 crore. Till date, even the first phase is not over.
Mail Today has accessed exclusive details of the proposed 'office and data centre complex' of Nat-Grid to be built at Rs 150 crore by the National Building Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) at Andheria Mod. The State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), on November 30 granted Environment Clearance (EC) for the construction of the building, 17 months after the NBCC sought the nod.
SEIAA's riders include those applicable to pre-construction, construction, operation and 'lifetime' phases. The NBCC would have to ensure fire, structural safety, pollution control, besides water and energy conservation. Safe disposal of e-waste and hazardous waste besides radiation control are also on top of the agenda. The EC is critical because it is granted only after an impact assessment study, making sure that precautions suggested will help check ecological degradation. EC is valid for seven years.
The NBCC would also have to take, from the Delhi government's pollution watchdog, separate consents to establish and operate further safeguards against possible environmental degradation. These clearances would have to be renewed through periodic audits.
But the more serious delays pertain to not just green clearances and plot allotment. Work on Nat-Grid slowed down after the NDA government took charge last year. Agencies such as IB, R&AW, CBI, and CBDT have been apprehensive about breach of security and misuse of information.
The total plot area is 40,468 sqm-34 per cent of it has to be kept green. The facility with two basements would need 45 KLD (kilo litres a day) of water and 6,065 KVA of power. As many as 400 cars can be parked at the complex. In August this year, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation approved the allotment of a plot, 19 months after then home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde laid the foundation stone.
NatGrid looks to use cutting edge technology and bring to one platform intelligence from more than 20 agencies like Railways and banks. The idea is to collate and analyse vital data to get the complete view of a situation. Details that take one to three months can be had within minutes.
Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and some other can receive information.
"If any agency wants details-regarding telephone, residential, travel, and banking on a suspect, those can be available on a common platform," said a senior official.
US citizen of Pakistan origin David Coleman Headley, one of the key masterminds of the 26/11 attacks, made frequent visits to Delhi and Mumbai, but could never be tracked because of scattered details.
Currently, about 70 personnel drawn both from government services and private sectors are working from where they are.
RAW, CBI, and CBDT have been apprehensive about breach of security and misuse of information.
In May 2014, former CEO, P Raghu Raman, handpicked by then home minister P Chidambaram from Mahindra Defence Land System, did not get an extension. For a year, there was an ad hoc and interim arrangement. A senior MHA official looked after it. In May 2015, Ashok Prasad, currently special secretary (internal security) in MHA, and number two in IB, was given Nat-Grid's charge. There is a strong buzz that the programme could be placed under IB, and after January 31, when Prasad retires, he could be in charge. "MHA has formed various committees to iron out the rough edges and roll out the programme. The delays are because the government wants the system to be foolproof," said another senior official.
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