National Emergency Communication Plan

The nation’s strategic plan to improve emergency communications capabilities is known as the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP). The NECP acts as the country’s road map for guaranteeing emergency communications interoperability at all levels of government as it navigates the challenging goal of preserving and enhancing emergency communications capabilities for emergency responders.

There was a significant loss of time in mobilizing national and state resources during the major disasters of the Odisha Super Cyclone in 1999 and the Gujarat Earthquake in 2001 as a result of the breakdown of telecommunications. To be implemented in two phases, National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) was developed for the development of reliable communications between the decision-makers and various levels of the incident response team.

Aim: The NECP envisions providing National Disaster Response Forces (NDRF) with services such as voice, data and video communication by means of satellitebased communications, including VSATs, transponders and satellite phones between the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) and NDRF Battalions

Project cost: As per the Second Phase of NECP, funds of Rs. 76.789 crores were allocated for 10 battalions of NDRF in 2011. Phase I was approved in 2004 with an outlay of Rs. 11.28 crores. Two additional battalions of the NDRF were raised in 2015, which led to the extension of NECP Phase-II to these newly raised battalions with an expenditure of Rs. 16.4372 crores in 2017.