Great Nicobar project: Shipping Ministry proposes cruise terminal, high-end tourism infra
NEW DELHI : 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.
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.
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.
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”