NGT green signal for Nicobar Port; notes safeguards

The National Green Tribunal on Monday cleared the Centre's ₹90,000-crore-plus Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project, holding that the 2022 environmental clearance granted by the Union environment ministry incorporated "adequate safeguards" and that there was no "good ground to interfere."

The NGT bench, while disposing of a batch of petitions challenging the project, underscored its "strategic importance" and noted that the concerns raised had been duly examined by the high-powered committee it constituted in 2023 to review the environmental clearance.

It has, meanwhile sought "full and strict compliance with the EC conditions" by relevant authorities.


"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 NGT ruled.

In April 2023, the NGT had upheld the environmental clearance on several counts and constituted a high-powered committee to address the remaining concerns.

The Great Nicobar infrastructure project near Galathea Bay comprises a container transshipment port, a dual-use civil-military airport and an integrated township spread over 166 sq km. It entails diversion of about 130 sq km of forest land on an island recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot, home to species such as the Nicobar megapode, leatherback turtle and Nicobar macaque.

A March 2021 pre-feasibility report cited national security and the consolidation of the Indian Ocean region as key drivers. Great Nicobar's location on the main east-west shipping route, roughly equidistant from Colombo, Port Klang and Singapore, adds to its strategic significance.