Why the Great Nicobar Island project is courting controversy

Last week, the Congress party redoubled its objections to the Great Nicobar Integrated Development Project, terming it an ecological disaster in its present form. Banasree Purkayastha looks at the controversy and the strategic interests cited by the government as the reason to go ahead with the project

- Banasree Purkayastha

THE GREAT NICOBAR Integrated Development Project (GNI) seeks to transform Great Nicobar island located in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal into a maritime and economic hub by leveraging its proximity (about 40 nautical miles) to the East-West shipping route and reducing dependence on foreign transshipment ports such as Colombo or Singapore.

Originally envisioned by NITI Aayog at an investment of ₹81,000 crore, the project includes four primary aspects — an International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) with a capacity of 14.2 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit), a greenfield international airport (4000 Peak Hour Passengers-PHP), a 450 MVA (Megavolt Ampere) gas and solar-based power plant, and a new township spanning 16,610 hectares. The first $4-billion phase on Great Nicobar — construction of a port at Galathea Bay and airport at Campbell Bay — is likely to be completed by 2035. Once finished, the container port will handle more than 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), making it one of India's three largest ports.

Why the Congress party has opposed the project