An aerial view seen after tsunami at Indira Point in Andaman, Nicobar Islands, India. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
An international cruise terminal to facilitate a “global” port-led city, “high-end” tourism infrastructure, and a ship-breaking yard are among the new additions to the ₹72,000 crore mega-infrastructure project in Great Nicobar Island proposed by the Union Shipping Ministry, according to letters accessed by this writer.
However, the government has also been denying right to information (RTI) requests about environment clearances for this mega project, which includes a military-civil airport, on the grounds that it would affect India’s security and strategic concerns. It is not clear how the Shipping Ministry’s new proposals will be compatible with such concerns.
Apart from the cruise terminal, the Shipping Ministry has also sought 100 acres of land with a seafront for a proposed ship building and ship breaking facility, and an export-import port, in a series of letters written to the Andaman and Nicobar Administration and the Union Home Ministry over the last eight months.
The existing Great Nicobar project already includes an international container transshipment port proposed at Galathea Bay, an airport, a power plant, and a massive greenfield township and tourism project to be spread over 130 sq km of land that is now pristine tropical forest. The project is being implemented by the Port Blair-based Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Ltd (ANIIDCO). The Stage I forest clearance for diversion of 130 sq. km of forest land was granted in in October 2022 and followed in November 2022 by environmental and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearances.
Grand ambitions
In April 2024, Rajeev Kumar, an Under-Secretary in the Shipping Ministry wrote to the Chief Secretary of the A&N administration, asking for another 100 acres of land with a 500-metre seafront for ship repair and ship building facilities in Campbell Bay, the administrative headquarters of Great Nicobar Island. This was followed in May by a request, again from Mr. Kumar, to the A&N Shipping Secretary, seeking to enable Campbell Bay to be declared an export-import port to import construction material from neighbouring countries for the transshipment terminal at Galathea Bay.
More recently, on September 18, Union Shipping Secretary T.K. Ramachandran himself wrote a letter to the Union Home Secretary, noting that the vision was “to transform Great Nicobar island into a ‘Global Port-Led City’ with a strategic focus on establishing a ‘sustainable and High-End Eco-tourism Destination’.” He also advocated for an international and domestic cruise terminal “to accommodate high-end and domestic tourists”.
Differing visions
The responses, from the A&N Chief Secretary on October 23 and then from an ANIIDCO general manager on October 24, indicate a reluctance on their part to commit to these proposals. Their letters ask the Union Shipping Ministry to engage a specialised consultant on its own to explore the techno-economic feasibility of the cruise terminal and to discuss the matter of the export-import port with the concerned Ministry.
They also argue that ship repair will be not be compatible with the purpose of the greenfield township and it “could undermine the envisioned water front activities, particularly the tourism infrastructure envisaged for Great Nicobar Island”. In an earlier response in July, ANIIDCO had also noted that the coastline comes under a coastal regulation zone (CRZ 1a) as it has coral reefs along almost the entire east coast and that this would be a constraint for ship repair activity.
Sovereignty, security concerns
Concerns have already been raised about the environmental impact of the existing project but multiple requests for more details have been denied under Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act that invokes issues of sovereignty, integrity, security, and the strategic concerns of the country. In November 2022, Mumbai-based researcher Prasad Kale had filed an RTI application asking the Union Environment Ministry for information related to the clearances granted to the project.
The Ministry refused, invoking Section 8(1)(a) and also relying on a Ministry of Home Affairs order stating that the proposed airport was a dual-use military-civil facility which will come under the operational control of the Indian Navy (through DO letter No. 15020/24/2020- Plg. Cell dated 15.09.2022). This argument was upheld by the Central Information Commissioner in its June 2024 order, which only directed that information be released on the compensatory afforestation proposed for the project.
“It is strange that information about these projects is being denied on grounds of sovereignty and integrity of India, and security and strategic interests,” says Debi Goenka of the Conservation Action Trust which has challenged the project before the National Green Tribunal. “At the most, information about the airport could have been excluded but there is no rationale for refusing to divulge information about the other three.”
Contrary purposes
Given the MHA’s stance and the consistent denial of information on the grounds that the project required secrecy because of its strategic location and security concerns, the Shipping Ministry’s recent proposals stand out. There is no mention, anywhere in the Ministry’s six-month-long running correspondence on its new proposals, about these strategic concerns that have been used to deny information about the environment and other risks.
It also does not account for the fact that many of these activities — such as ship breaking, a cruise terminal and high-end international tourism — are themselves contrary to this strategic purpose. Emails sent to officials in the Shipping Ministry and ANIIDCO seeking their clarification in the matter did not receive any response.
These projects, Mr. Goenka notes, will open up Great Nicobar Island to foreign vessels and national and international tourists. “The policy followed since Independence of keeping Great Nicobar Island isolated from foreigners will be overturned,” he warns.
(Pankaj Sekhsaria is an author and editor whose most recent work is The Great Nicobar Betrayal.)
Published – January 05, 2025 04:57 am IST
