NGT Clears Great Nicobar Maritime Megaproject
By Gajanan Khergamker
The dismissal of the challenges does not grant the project impunity. It underscores that compliance with every stipulated condition remains enforceable, measurable and open to review. For a venture estimated at approximately ₹81,000 crore, the order removes a formidable procedural impediment while simultaneously binding the promoters to an exacting regime of oversight.
The scale of the enterprise is expansive, almost continental in imagination despite its island geography. Spearheaded by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation, the project unfolds over an estimated thirty-year horizon. At its centre stands the proposed International Container Transshipment Terminal at Galathea Bay, positioned on the southern flank of Great Nicobar Island. Alongside it are planned a greenfield international airport designed to accommodate both civilian and strategic aviation needs, a 450 MVA power plant integrating gas-insulated systems with solar generation, and two greenfield townships intended to house the workforce and associated population that such infrastructure inevitably attracts. It is not a single port, nor merely an airport, nor a township. It is an attempt to redraw the economic cartography of India’s southernmost frontier.
Galathea Bay’s natural draft of around 20 metres has been repeatedly cited as a decisive technical advantage. In maritime economics, depth is destiny. The ability to berth ultra-large container vessels without extensive capital dredging reduces both environmental disturbance and recurring maintenance costs. Phase I of the terminal is projected to handle 4 million TEUs by 2028, with the longer arc of development envisaging a scaling up to roughly 16 million TEUs at maturity. Those figures, often recited in policy briefings, signal not only capacity but ambition: an aspiration to reposition India from being predominantly a feeder market in global container flows to becoming a nodal transshipment hub in its own right.
The Tribunal’s reasoning in February 2026 traversed ecological anxieties that have animated the debate since inception. Concerns over coral ecosystems, coastal geomorphology and the nesting grounds of the endangered leatherback turtle were examined in the context of the environmental impact assessments and the conditions imposed at the time of clearance. The order recorded that mitigation measures, including proposed translocation plans, seasonal safeguards and long-term ecological monitoring, had been built into the approval framework. It also noted that forest diversion and wildlife clearances had moved through the statutory channels prescribed under Indian environmental law. The Tribunal did not suggest that ecological risk evaporates in the face of paperwork. It held that the law’s procedural and substantive demands had been met.
Parallel to environmental scrutiny runs the more intricate question of tribal rights. Great Nicobar is not an empty canvas. It is home to the Shompen, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, and to the Nicobarese community, whose relationship with land, forest and sea is civilisational rather than transactional. Critics of the project continue to express apprehension regarding the long-term implications for tribal reserves and the operationalisation of forest rights. The Tribunal declined to invalidate the clearances on these grounds, yet the conversation around consent, cultural continuity and demographic transformation persists. Development on an island of such sensitivity cannot be assessed solely in cubic metres of concrete or millions of TEUs. It must be weighed also in terms of anthropological permanence.
Strategically, the location is as compelling as it is contested. Great Nicobar lies proximate to the Malacca Strait, through which a significant portion of global maritime trade flows along the East–West corridor. For decades, a substantial share, often estimated at about 75 per cent, of India’s container transshipment has been handled at foreign ports such as Colombo, Singapore and Port Klang. Each container routed abroad for consolidation and onward shipment attracts additional handling costs commonly cited in the range of 80 to 100 US dollars per TEU. Although India’s overall logistics costs have improved and are now reported at roughly 8 per cent of GDP, policymakers have argued that strategic autonomy in transshipment is as critical as incremental savings in freight bills.
In that light, the proposed terminal at Galathea Bay is cast as a corrective. It seeks to capture cargo from India’s eastern seaboard and potentially from neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Myanmar, reducing dependence on overseas hubs. It complements parallel maritime investments such as Vizhinjam, collectively signalling an intent to embed India more deeply into the architecture of global shipping lanes. Beyond commerce lies the dimension of Maritime Domain Awareness. Infrastructure, in the Indian Ocean region, is never merely commercial. Ports, airstrips and power grids carry strategic undertones, particularly at a time when global supply chains are recalibrating in response to geopolitical flux.
The promise, however, travels with obligation. Great Nicobar’s forests are dense, its biodiversity rich, its coastlines ecologically intricate. The Tribunal’s endorsement does not dilute the binding nature of environmental conditions. Monitoring regimes, wildlife management plans and compensatory afforestation commitments will require sustained transparency and institutional vigilance. Tribal welfare measures must move beyond paperwork into demonstrable protection of habitat, livelihood and identity. The island’s future will be judged not only by throughput statistics or shipping indices but by whether development and conservation are held in disciplined equilibrium.
The Great Nicobar Island Development Project thus stands at the intersection of law, logistics and legacy. It is an experiment in scale at the edge of the subcontinent, where environmental fragility meets maritime ambition. The February 2026 ruling has cleared a legal passage. The voyage ahead will test the Republic’s capacity to reconcile growth with guardianship, strategy with sensitivity, and infrastructure with integrity.
To receive regular updates and notifications, follow The Draft News:
