The Labour government yesterday announced its updated security preparedness to prevent and deal with terrorist attacks based on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.
"The Government is putting in place a package of enhanced nuclear security measures to demonstrate the UK's commitment to tacking the threat of nuclear terrorism and to encourage other nations to follow suit," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement.
The NMIC is also expected to scan and provide information on potential threats to the sailing events in the 2012 Olympics.
The monitoring centre will involve the navy, customs, the UK Border Agency, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the coastguards.
Lord West, security minister, said: "Things like the attack on Mumbai and the forthcoming Olympics in 2012 made us realise we needed to look at the maritime domain more closely. We have this mass of agencies all of whom have a certain responsibility for affairs at sea, particularly close to our coasts."
The British government's latest threat analysis says that the country is at risk from terrorists who could travel into London or other major cities by speed boat.
The NMIC is scheduled to be operations in autumn this year.
Lord West admitted there were hundreds of thousands of small boats arriving in Britain unchecked every year.
It is feared that ships or speed boats could sail into major cities such as London, Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow or Belfast to launch their attacks.
Lord West said: "I think the public would be surprised to discover that we do not know about every single contact with a vessel."
He said that the various agencies responsible for guarding the coastline did not know "with any clarity what is going on around our coasts."
"The sharing of information has not been as good as it should be. I think the British public would be surprised to realise that we don't know what every single contact is off our coast – and the reason is the number of people who are looking at these things. I believe this is a huge step forward that will really enable us to get to grips with this issue," he said.