What Is The Great Nicobar Project And Why Does It Hold Strategic Importance For India?
Congress MP Sonia Gandhi has yet again lashed out at the Centre’s Great Nicobar Project. In a column in The Hindu on Monday, Gandhi condemned the Great Nicobar Project as a “planned misadventure”, arguing it tramples on tribal rights and bypasses crucial constitutional, legal, and environmental safeguards. She also warned of a “looming ecological and tribal catastrophe”, where the Nicobarese are set to be “permanently displaced” from ancestral villages that lie within the development zone — a community that had hoped to return after the 2004 tsunami.
Gandhi’s column also alleged a “staggering scale of deforestation” — estimating the loss of between 850,000 (8.5 lakh) to 5.8 million (58 lakh) trees. She critiqued the government’s approach to compensatory afforestation, calling it grossly inadequate in replacing the complexity and ecological value of old-growth rainforests.
What Is The Great Nicobar Project?
The Great Nicobar Project is a large-scale infrastructure and development plan proposed by the Narendra Modi government for Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost island of the Andaman & Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal. It is a multi-billion-dollar strategic and infrastructural plan to build a port, airport, power, and township facilities on Great Nicobar Island, boosting India’s maritime security and trade. The project received environmental and forest clearances (with conditions) in 2022. The total cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 81,000 crore.
Led by NITI Aayog and implemented through the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO), the project aims to transform Great Nicobar into a hub of strategic, economic, and tourism importance. It includes:
International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT): A deep-sea port at Galathea Bay with a capacity of approximately 16 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), leveraging Great Nicobar’s location near the Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Greenfield International Airport: Designed to handle both civilian and defense needs, it is projected to have a passenger capacity of around 4,000 per hour by 2050.
Township Development: A planned city for approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people, featuring residential, commercial, and institutional spaces.
Power Plant & Infrastructure: A 450 MVA gas and solar-based power plant along with roads, water supply, and supporting infrastructure.
Strategic Significance And National Security
The Great Nicobar Project is significant not only for infrastructure and trade but also for its national security and strategic importance to India.
- Strategic Location near Malacca Strait
Great Nicobar is situated close to the Six Degree Channel, a crucial passage near the Malacca Strait through which 30-40 per cent of global trade and most of China’s energy imports pass. By developing a transshipment port and airport, India can monitor and secure maritime traffic through one of the world’s busiest and most critical chokepoints. This enhances India’s ability to counterbalance China’s presence in the Indian Ocean, particularly against Beijing’s “String of Pearls” strategy, which comprises a network of ports and facilities across the Indian Ocean. - Military and Naval Advantages
The planned dual-use international airport will serve both civilian and defence purposes, enabling the rapid deployment of the Navy and Air Force in the Andaman & Nicobar Command, India’s only tri-services command. This strengthens India’s surveillance over the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, key maritime zones where external powers operate. - Check on Chinese Expansion
China has heavily invested in ports in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, such as Gwadar, Hambantota, and Kyaukpyu. A world-class Indian port at Great Nicobar would provide an alternative to Chinese ports for regional and global shipping, enhance India’s role as a logistics hub in the Indo-Pacific, and give India leverage in case of geopolitical or military tensions in the region. - Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)
The port and supporting infrastructure will improve India’s ability to track, monitor, and control shipping lanes. It bolsters India’s role in Quad security initiatives (with the US, Japan, and Australia), ensuring free and open navigation in the Indo-Pacific. - Disaster Response and Regional Security
The 2004 tsunami highlighted the region’s vulnerability. A modern port and airport in Great Nicobar will enhance Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) capabilities, enabling India to act faster in disaster response across Southeast Asia and improving its image as a security provider in the region.
Concerns & Critique
The project has drawn environmental and social concerns, especially from opposition leaders.
Ecological impact: Opposition leaders have expressed concerns over large-scale felling of forests (over 8 lakh trees) and threat to rare species (like Nicobar megapode and leatherback turtles). Congress MP and former environment minister Jairam ramesh said, “The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has been claiming that 8.5 lakh trees will get felled … independent estimates, including those by the ministry itself, put the number anywhere between 32 lakh and 58 lakh trees.” In a post on X last year, he said the only sensible way forward is for this disaster of a project to be paused and reviewed thoroughly by an independent and professionally competent team, adding that “egos and prestige” must be set aside.
Indigenous communities: Concerns have also been raised on potential displacement and cultural impact on Shompens and Nicobarese tribes, who are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). Last week, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote to Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram expressing concern over the alleged violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in the grant of clearances to the project. He urged the government to ensure adherence to the due process prescribed under the law.
“The tribal communities were displaced during the 2004 tsunami and have been unable to return to their ancestral lands. They now fear that the project will threaten their way of life and lead to further marginalisation due to the diversion of their land,” Gandhi said in his letter.
Seismic risks: Great Nicobar lies in a high-risk earthquake and tsunami zone, having been hit by the 2004 tsunami. “The island had subsided by nearly 15 feet during the 2004 tsunami. To build such massive infrastructure in a high-risk seismic zone is to invite disaster,” Congress MP Jairam Ramesh had said last year.
