The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday cleared the Centre’s ₹90,000-crore-plus Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project, ruling that the 2022 environmental clearance (EC) granted by the Union environment ministry incorporated “adequate safeguards” and that there was no “good ground to interfere.”
A bench of the National Green Tribunal disposed of a batch of petitions challenging the project, underscoring its “strategic importance” and observing that the concerns raised by petitioners had been examined by a high-powered committee constituted in 2023 to review the environmental clearance.
“We find adequate safeguards in the EC conditions. The remaining issues flagged earlier have been addressed by the High-Powered Committee. Given the project’s strategic importance, we see no ground to interfere,” the tribunal said, while directing “full and strict compliance with the EC conditions” by the relevant authorities.
In April 2023, the tribunal had upheld the environmental clearance on several counts and set up the high-powered committee to examine outstanding environmental concerns.
The Great Nicobar infrastructure project, located near Galathea Bay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, comprises a container transshipment port, a dual-use civil-military airport, and an integrated township spread across 166 sq km. The project involves diversion of around 130 sq km of forest land on Great Nicobar Island, a globally recognised biodiversity hotspot.
The island is home to several protected species, including the Nicobar megapode, leatherback turtle and Nicobar macaque.
A pre-feasibility report prepared in March 2021 cited national security and consolidation of India’s position in the Indian Ocean region as key drivers of the project. Great Nicobar’s location on the main east-west international shipping route — roughly equidistant from Colombo, Port Klang and Singapore — enhances its strategic and commercial significance as a potential transshipment hub.