Land allotted for NSG hub in Gujarat: Government

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government has allotted land near here to set up a regional hub of National Security Guard ( NSG), whose commandos were flown into the state early this month in the wake of a terror alert, the Assembly was informed today.

The land, measuring 1.33 lakh sq metres, has been allotted to the centre near Randesan village in Gandhinagar district, Minister of State for Home Rajnibhai Patel said.

Speaking during a discussion on the budgetary demands for Home Department, Patel said the market value of the allotted land is more than Rs 470 crore, but it has been given to the Centre at a token cost of Re 1.

A hub of the elite anti-terror force here is crucial as Gujarat shares a 512-km-long land border with Pakistan and has 1,640-km-long coastline, he told the House.

"When terrorists attacked Mumbai in November 2008, it took significant time to deploy NSG commandos by airlifting them (from Delhi). To avoid such a delay in future (in case of a terror attack), we had requested the then (UPA) government to set up an NSG hub in Gujarat," said Patel.

"As the centre accepted our request in March 2011, the state government agreed to provide land at Randesan village to set up necessary infrastructure for the NSG hub," he said.

Four NSG teams were dispatched to Gujarat in the first week of March following intelligence inputs that 10 terrorists have sneaked in the State to launch an attack on the famous Somnath Temple during Maha Shivratri festival.