Great Nicobar Island Development Project

Great Nicobar Development Plan is a planned mega-infrastructure project for the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island in Andaman Sea of India. The island comes under the Nicobar district administriation in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Overview
Total project costing ₹75,000 crore (US$9.4 b in 2022) was conceived by NITI Aayog and is being developed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDC). geostrategic importance for defence, logistics, commerce and industries, eco-tourism, coastal tourism, Coastal Regulation Zone, etc, The project include:
 * 1) Galathea Bay International Container Transhipment Terminal (Galathea Bay ICTT) with 14.2 million TEUs (unit of cargo) capacity eventually.
 * 2) Great Nicobar International Airport (GNIA), a greenfield airport with peak hour capacity of 4,000 passengers.
 * 3) Great Nicobar Gas and Solar Power Plant (Great Nicobar GSPP) with 450-MVA capacity, spread over 16,610 hectares.
 * 4) Two new greenfield coastal cities.

Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's Expert Appraisal Committee had granted the environmental clearance in November 2022 after considering the environmental risks and mitigation strategies.

History
Feasibility report, commissioned by NITI Aayog, was prepared by AECOM India. On 25 May 2021, terms of reference of project was granted after meeting held by Expert Appraisal Committee.

Existing infrastructure
INS Baaz is a naval base located at Campbell Bay. It comes under Andaman and Nicobar Command. It connects island with Car Nicobar and Port Blair Air bases.



Environmental impact


After weighing the following pros and cons, benefits, risk and mitigation strategies, the project was granted the environmental clearance by the MoEFCC's Expert Appraisal Committee.

Flora
Due to this project, island will lose 12 to 20 hectares of mangrove cover, which the government will be compensating by afforestation in Haryana's Aravallis as per rules which allow for such remote compensatory afforestation.

Corals
To mitigate the risk of loss of corals, the corals will be translocated in the reefs around the island.

Fauna
The project area within 10 km radius of Galthea Bay is ecologically sensitive zone and home of rare fauna such as Leatherback sea turtle, salt water crocodile, Nicobar macaque. To mitigate the risk, the Indian MoEFCC's Expert Appraisal Committee has proposed three conservation sites for fauna - Little Nicobar, Menchal Island and Meroe Island. In August 2022, the Tribal Council of Campbell Bay, Little & Great Nicobar voiced their opposition to the creation of the wildlife sanctuaries. In a letter to the island’s Deputy Commissioner, they said that they were not consulted about the sanctuaries, and pointed out that they have co-existed with the island’s wildlife “long before the concept of a wildlife sanctuary was even conceived”.

Human
This project which includes two new planned cities in the region will increase population to over 350,000, which may cause a threat to the indigenous communities. After the environmental clearance by MoEFCC, some experts and researchers expressed concerns to Ministry of Tribal Affairs about vulnerablity of indigenous communities on the island. Around 1761 individuals belonging to the indigenous Shompen and Nicobarese tribes live in the island. 853 square kilometres (approximately 92% of the total area) of the Great Nicobar Island is designated as tribal reserve under the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956. This means that the land is meant for exclusive use of the community and others cannot access the area without their express permission. Around 10% of tribal reserve of the island will be affected by this project. Indigenous people live outside the project area and the tribal reserve also falls outside the project area. According to Forest Rights Act, 2006, Shompen people are legal sole authority to preserve the forest reserve. Survival International, a global NGO campaigning for indigenous rights, has said that the mega-development will put the Shompen at risk of being wiped out. In February 2024, 39 genocide experts from 13 countries warned that the development  “will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide”. They said that the proposed population increase and exposure to outside populations would lead to mass deaths because the Shompen have little to no immunity to infectious outside diseases.

Present status

 * 28 Jan 2023 - bids opened: Bids submitted by vendors for the ₹41,000-crore (US$8 b) mega international container transhipment port (ICTP) at Galathea Bay were opened today, phase-1 with 4 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) will be completed by 2028, and capacity will be eventually increased to 16 million TEU.
 * Ten Companies has filled Expression of Interest,
 * Adani Ports & SEZ
 * Container Corporation of India
 * Essar Ports
 * JSW Infrastructure
 * Megha Engineering & Infrastructures
 * Navayuga Engineering
 * PDP International
 * Rail Vikas Nigam
 * Royal Boskalis Westminster N. V.
 * Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port
 * Vishwa Samudra Holdings