The 241 ‘Black Cat’ troopers and support staff occupying the hub are facing an acute space crunch and have been asked to vacate the premises after cracks were found in the structure.
The Mumbai National Security Guard (NSG) hub in Marol, which was opened with great fanfare in February this year, is in dire straits. The counter-terror unit’s hub has been deemed unsafe and ordered to be abandoned. The 241 ‘Black Cat’ troopers and support staff occupying the hub are facing an acute space crunch and have been asked to vacate the premises after cracks were found in the structure.
The NSG played a crucial role during the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai in 2008. Following criticism that NSG commandos took a long time to reach the city from their base in Manesar, Haryana, the central government felt the need to deploy NSG contingents in major cities of the country, including Mumbai.
Following complaints of space crunch, the Mumbai NSG hub was relocated from a small campus in Kalina to a 23-acre land in Marol which was given by the Maharashtra government. During its inauguration in February 2012, then Union home minister P Chidambaram said that being a paramilitary force, the NSG will get all possible assistance from defence establishments.
However, sources said the condition of the commandos is worse at the new structure. They have no option, but to stay in a semi-permanent accommodation which is not suitable given their work profile.
The NSG Delhi has asked architectural experts from IIT-Roorkee and force officials to study the big cracks which have developed just 10 months after the Marol hub was inaugurated.
This is not the first time that NSG commandos are facing problems in Mumbai. DNA was the first to report in 2010 that nearly a dozen NSG commandos fell ill after they drank borewell water due to the unavailability of a water connection from the municipal corporation in its Kalina hub. The NSG even wrote letters to the local municipal ward office, asking for a water connection.
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