The Great Nicobar Project aims to create India's Hong Kong. Why the row?

Barely 9 km from India's southern tip, about 210 km from Indonesia's Aceh province, and roughly 900 km from the Malacca Strait, New Delhi is betting big on the Great Nicobar Project. With the Rs 72,000-crore Great Nicobar Project, India is seeking to harness the commercial transshipment potential in its southeastern fringe, leveraging key shipping lanes while countering China's 'string of pearls' in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

The multi-billion-dollar project in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is planned across 166 sq km, and envisions a transshipment hub, power plant, airport, and township, in one of the world's most biodiverse yet disaster-prone ecosystems. The Great Nicobar Island, on which the project is planned, is home to the 300-member Shompen Tribe (classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group—PVTG).

It is these very ecological and human costs that have turned the project into a major flashpoint. On Monday, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in an opinion piece in The Hindu raised concerns over the project's ecological impact. It was amplified by Congress leaders, including MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The BJP hit back swiftly, with spokesperson Anil K Antony accusing the Congress of undermining India's strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific.

The BJP leader called the Great Nicobar Project "a critical asset for India's naval capabilities, power projection, strategic calculus and operations in the Indo-Pacific".

Indian anthropologist Anstice Justin, a native of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, told the BBC that the project was New Delhi's "Hong Kong-like project" in the secluded Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The Great Nicobar Island is 2,700 km from Hong Kong and 9 km from Indira Point—India's southernmost tip.

So, what is the Great Nicobar Project? What does India hope to gain from it? Why are critics and environmentalists alarmed, and why the project, which Sonia Gandhi called "half-baked, ill-conceived and a planned misadventure", snowballed into a controversy?

WHAT IS INDIA'S RS 72,000-CRORE GREAT NICOBAR PROJECT?

The Great Nicobar Project, formally called the Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island, was approved by the Narendra Modi Cabinet in 2021.

The project is spearheaded by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO), a government entity, and will be built over 30 years at an estimated cost of Rs 72,000 crore.

The project is proposed to span over 166 sq km, which is about 10% of Great Nicobar's 910 sq km area. The project includes four main constituents.

First, is a transshipment port at Galathea Bay, which is proposed to handle up to 14.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) annually. The port aims to rival Singapore's transshipment throughput near the China-influenced Malacca Strait, a lane carrying roughly 25% of global trade.

With the port there, India aims to reduce its reliance on foreign hubs by capturing 20–30% of regional cargo rerouting from the Malacca Strait.

Second, a greenfield international airport with a 3,300-metre runway, capable of handling wide-body aircraft, has been proposed to boost connectivity.

Third, a 450 MW gas-based and solar power plant is proposed to ensure energy self-sufficiency.

The fourth is a 16,569-hectare township for up to 65,000 residents, including workers and migrants, is also planned, according to NITI Aayog's Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Pre-feasibility Report (March 2021), parts of which are partially blurred on the Government's Environment Clearance website.

GREAT NICOBAR PROJECT COULD GENERATE Rs 30,000 CRORE ANNUALLY

Economically, the port could generate Rs 30,000 crore in annual revenue by 2040, accordig to government estimates, while creating 50,000 jobs. It aligns with the Centre's Sagarmala initiative, which promotes development in coastal economic zones.

Construction of the project was slated to begin in phases from 2024, and part of it will be operational by 2028.

The project draws inspiration from global models like Singapore and Hong Kong, and aims to transform the island into a "growth pole" for the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region.

Experts say the port, offering a natural deep-water harbour with minimal dredging needs, positions India as a gateway to Southeast Asia.

The island's proximity to the Malacca Strait, through which 80% of China's oil imports pass, makes it a vantage point for India and global maritime traffic.

CRITICAL DEFENCE, NAVAL STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THE GREAT NICOBAR PROJECT

The Great Nicobar Project is also of critical defence importance. It could serve as India's frontline in the eastern Indo-Pacific against potential maritime threats.

The project is seen as a response to China's 'string of pearls' strategy.

"Islands like the Andaman and Nicobar give us a lot of strategic reach. And they are capable of acting as a springboard for operations when required and, therefore, infrastructure development on these islands is a prime focus. We have been working on it for some time, and we've got plans to develop these islands for air operations and for operational turnaround facilities of our ships and submarines," then-Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Karambir Singh told The Hindu in 2021.

The project strengthens India's ability to monitor and project power across the eastern choke points, including the Sunda, Lombok, and Ombai-Wetar straits. The islands' location allows for rapid deployment and surveillance of naval and air assets, enhancing deterrence against potential threats from the East, wrote Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (Retd) in a 2024 piece in The Indian Express newspaper.

Finally, by integrating maritime, transport, and economic infrastructure, the project underpins India's long-term strategic vision for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a hub for security, trade, and regional influence, according to Dasgupta, who is a former Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Naval Command.

Despite its economic and defence potential, experts and Congress MP Sonia Gandhi have raised concerns over the Great Nicobar Project's ecological impact. They have also flagged threats to indigenous rights, reported legal lapses in the project, and investment risks.

ECOLOGICAL, INDIGENOUS, AND LEGAL CONCERNS OVER GREAT NICOBAR PORT PROJECT

Critics argue the Great Nicobar Port Project threatens one of Asia's richest ecosystems.

Great Nicobar, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate, hosts 200 bird species, including the Nicobar megapode, and endemic flora covering 85% of the island. The Galathea Bay Area, proposed for the port, is a Ramsar wetland with mangroves that act as natural barriers against tsunamis.

Galathea Bay, the Indian Ocean's most important nesting site for the giant leatherback, which is the world's largest sea turtle, is at risk from the project, Pankaj Sekhsaria, the author of The Great Nicobar Betrayal, said.

Environmentalists warn that dredging of millions of cubic meters of seabed will destroy coral reefs supporting hundreds of fish species and exacerbate erosion in an earthquake-prone zone.

At the heart of the row is also the Shompen Tribe, which is a PVTG with hunter-gatherer traditions, numbering around 300–400, that inhabit the island. Isolated for centuries, they rely on the forests for 70% of their sustenance. The project would displace them from 130 sq km of ancestral land, including some sacred sites.

"Uncontacted people have little to no immunity to outside diseases like flu and measles, which can and do wipe them out. They typically lose around two thirds of their population after contact," Callum Russell, an official at the conservation group Survival International, told the BBC in 2024.

Pankaj Sekhsaria in The Indian Express piece flagged two key issues with the project. "First, a category of land labelled by Indian law as coastal regulation zone (CRZ)-1A and second, the environmental clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC)," he wrote.

"Significantly, they are out of bounds for large construction projects such as the port in question in Great Nicobar Island," he argued.

"We must raise our voice against this travesty of justice and this betrayal of our national values," Sonia Gandhi wrote in The Hindu opinion piece.

Hours after the piece was published, BJP leaders hit back at Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. The issue is now a full-blown political debate.

BJP National General Secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh said, "This is the project that the Congress and its supreme leader Sonia Gandhi are opposing. Many forces inimical to Bharat's growth story are opposing this project. Why is Congress lending its voice to them?"

As the debate rages, experts too, remain divided. While some warn that Nicobar's fragile ecology cannot withstand such large-scale reclamation projects, and are advocating for eco-friendly alternatives, others argue that strategic infrastructure could significantly boost economic growth and safeguard India's position in the Indo-Pacific.

- Ends