Black Sunday brings tri-services command to life, in a war-room

The first phase of the relief work in south India and the Andamans, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Vice-Admiral Raman Puri said today, is over and now the focus is on rehabilitation. That this claim is being made within 10 days of the disaster has a lot to do with the centralised co-ordination possible through the INCP.

Equipped with state-of-the-art communication and control systems designed to meet the pressing demands of contemporary warfare, INCP was operationalised at the instance of the Navy which had to play the lead role in the disaster management on Sunday evening.

Each naval ship is a command post in itself and is in direct touch with the INCP. As of now there are 31 ships posted at various points along the affected areas. Further, the Army’s Southern Command has set up tactical headquarters at Chennai, which again, is in direct touch with this post and so will be the relief command being set up in the Andamans. There are nearly 8300 Army troops on the field along with Air Force and Navy personnel.

Within hours of the disaster, aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre were sent out to obtain the first aerial pictures. These have been pouring in since then along with satellite imageries. Sources say much of the focus has been on Andaman and Nicobar Islands. What the INCP has done is that it has drastically cut down the time for decision making. The usual process of the district collector requisitioning the help of the Armed Forces to the state which then forwards it to the Centre has been quickened with each requisition reaching the nerve centre through local defence units or ships directly from the spot.

Decision can then be taken instantly as the ministry officials concerned are present in the INCP round-the-clock. So, for instance, the decision for the Army to construct a bridge somewhere near Alappuzha was taken in a matter of seven minutes since the request was first made.

Similarly, special efforts were co-ordinated from here to ascertain the safety of tribes like the Onge and Jarwa. Members of the Group of Ministers set up for Tsunami relief are briefed on a daily basis here with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee visiting the place twice or thrice a day to get an update. Just like war, sources say, each Army, Navy or Air Force unit has to file a situation report every evening which is then assessed at the INCP.

And now orders have been passed for three unmanned aerial vehicles to carry out reconnaissance in the tsunami-affected areas as part of an accurate damage-assessment exercise.