The Great Nicobar Island Development Project (GNIDP) is a large infrastructure initiative proposed by the Government of India for Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, aimed at building an international container transshipment terminal, a dual‑use civil and military airport, a power plant and a township. The project is intended to strengthen India's strategic presence in the Indian Ocean region and reduce reliance on foreign transshipment hubs by leveraging the island’s proximity to major shipping routes such as the Strait of Malacca.

The proposal has attracted scrutiny from environmental groups, researchers and opposition politicians over concerns about its ecological impacts, including forest diversion, effects on coastal and marine ecosystems, and potential impacts on indigenous communities such as the Shompen and Nicobarese peoples.

History A 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.

Geography

Excluding the area from Campbell Bay on eastern side of the island to the Galathea Bay in the south and the whole southern tip, the rest of Great Nicobar Island is part of Galathea National Park and the larger Campbell Bay National Park. Galathea River, flowing north to south, meets the Indian Ocean at Galathea Bay.Are Giant Leatherback hatchlings from Galathea Bay being relocated?, The Hindu, 16 March 2025. Indira Point adjacent to the Galathea Bay, India's southernmost point, is 145 km or 80 nautical miles north of Indonesia's northernmost island, Rondo Island in Sabang district of Aceh province of Sumatra, near to which is Indonesia's deep sea port, Sabang (612 km or 330 nautical miles south of Indira Point), jointly upgraded by India and Indonesia in 2019 under the strategic military and economic collaboration to protect the channel between Great Nicobar Island and Rondo Island.India seeks to aid Indonesia in developing port in Aceh, Economic Times, 19 May 2018.

Great Nicobar sits atop a major seismic fault line: an earthquake with its epicenter around 80 miles from Great Nicobar contributed to the tsunami in 2004, which killed 230,000 people and displaced millions in Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka. The day the tsunami struck, Great Nicobar’s southern tip sank by around 15 feet, slipping into the ocean. Most settlements on its coast were washed away. The seismic faultline continues to be active. In July 2025, a geologist warned that an ongoing cluster of smaller earthquakes near the Nicobar Islands could signal a volcanic eruption in the Andaman Sea. This raises fears of another tsunami.

Holistic Master Plan for this project, outside the Galathea National Park, covers an area of 166.10 sq km covering seven revenue villages, which fall under the jurisdiction of three Gram Panchayats.Two gram panchayats give consent to Great Nicobar infrastructure project, Hindustan Times, 8 March 2025.

Project

Components

The total project cost is ₹75,000 crore (US$9.4 billion in 2022) and corrected to ₹81,000 crore (US$8.5 billion) in 2025, was conceived by NITI Aayog and is being developed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDC). offering geostrategic importance for defence, logistics, commerce and industries, eco-tourism, coastal tourism, and Coastal Regulation Zone. The project, to be completed in phases over 30 years, includes:

Multi-model transport hub:

Galathea Bay International Container Transhipment Terminal (Galathea Bay ICTT) on eastern side of Galathea Bay with total 16 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo) capacity, with phase-I capacity of 4 million TEUs.Bids for Andaman's Rs 41,000-crore mega port project open today., Economic Times, 28 January 2023.

Cruise Ship Terminal has natural water depth of over 20 metres, and is located 40 nautical miles from the East-West international shipping route giving it an advantage to attract both gateway and transhipment cargo, reduce India’s dependence on foreign ports like Colombo (Sri Lanka), Jurong Port (Singapore), and Klang (Malaysia).

Great Nicobar International Airport (GNIA), a greenfield airport at Chingen, on the immediate northeast side of Galathea Bay, with peak hour capacity of 4,000 passengers. The new airport is expected to handle at least 1 million passengers when it opens and grow to approximately 10 million passengers per year thereafter. Since the island is close to international tourist destinations like Phuket Island (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia) and Langkawi Island (Malaysia), it will become tourism and transit hub. The civil-military airport project worth was cleared in June 2026. The airport will be built within five years and will remain under naval operational control while regularly serving civil aviation needs.

Coastal Expressway 4-lane wide: A brand-new, 22-kilometre-long, 4-lane expressway is being constructed to connect the Galathea Bay Port directly to the new Greenfield International Airport and the commercial township further north. To prevent fragmenting the rainforest and disrupting wildlife migration, extensive segments of this expressway are built as elevated corridors on concrete stilts. This allows animals, including the island's unique crab populations and macaques, to pass safely underneath the highway.

Mass Transit Rail linking Port-to-Airport : To facilitate rapid supply movement, the master plan includes a dedicated automated rail transit corridor running parallel to the expressway. This rail line is designed primarily for high-speed container and air-cargo transfers. If an ultra-valuable or time-sensitive shipment arrives via an ocean liner at Galathea Bay, it can be offloaded onto the rail link, shuttled to the international airport within minutes, and flown out immediately on a long-haul cargo jet. The entire rail network is planned as a fully electrified, zero-emission line powered by the island's upcoming gas-solar hybrid power grids.

Utilities: Great Nicobar Gas and Solar Power Plant (Great Nicobar GSPP) on immediate northwest side of and Galathea Bay with 450 MVA capacity, spread over 16,610 hectares. An uninterrupted energy supply is a key component in increasing the GDP of the island.Great Nicobar Project: Strategic Importance, Sustainable Development, Government of India, 1 May 2026. Installation of a 450 MVA gas and solar-based power plant alongside a 5 MW solar project paired with a battery energy storage system (BESS).

Desalination plant: Because constructing heavy land-based water infrastructure takes years, the immediate Phase 1 port layout relies on Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants. These automated modular units filter seawater to provide instant fresh water for port operations, cooling systems, and ship provisioning.

Galathea River Dam: To sustain the upcoming mega-township and smart city, the irrigation and public health departments have proposed a freshwater reservoir dam along the upper stretches of the Galathea River. This dam faces severe environmental pushback. The Galathea River is a critical habitat for the endangered Nicobar Megapode (a unique mound-building bird) and giant saltwater crocodiles. Environmental clearance laws require strict buffer zones, meaning the dam's design is limited to low-impact, run-of-the-river check systems rather than massive concrete valley floodwalls.

Two new greenfield coastal cities spanning 16,610 hectares (166.1 sqkm), one on the southeast side of the Great Nicobar Island between Campbell Bay and Galathea Bay and another on southwest side of the Great Nicobar Island to the west of Galathea Bay. It will provide urban residential, commercial and institutional infrastructure for personnel, service providers and associated economic activities.

Industrial Hub.Fears loom over India's 'Hong Kong' project on a remote island, MSN, accsessed 8 April 2025.

Luxury Tourism Resorts Hub.

Phases

The Great Nicobar Project covering a total area of 166.10 sq km, including 35.35 sqkm revenue land and 130.75 sqkm forest land, will be developed in 3 phases:

2025–2035 Phase I, 72.12 sqkm for basic infrastructure: including phase-I of Galathea Bay International Container Transshipment Port (ICTP), dual-use military and civilian Campbell Bay International Airport with 3 km runway, modular desalination plant, installation of a 450 MVA gas and solar-based power plant, 22 km expressway, township development with basic trunk infrastructure and early coastal across Campbell Bay, Gandhi Nagar, and Govind Nagar to accommodate the incoming industrial workforce.

2036–2041 Phase II, 45.27 sqkm with commercialization, tourism, and urban expansion: Including port expansion, tourism & wellness hubs with AYUSH, Cruise Ship Terminal, township expansion, river dam, metro train.

2042–2047 Phase III, 48.71 sqkm global financial and tourism smart city hub: with Singapore-Dubai-style port-linked international finance hub, smart city with entertainment & smart precincts with high-density commercial infrastructure, digital business parks, and designated entertainment/gaming precincts.

Existing infrastructure

INS Baaz naval base with existing airstrip at Campbell Bay, under the Andaman and Nicobar Command, connects island with Car Nicobar and Port Blair Air bases.

Impact

Strategic significance

India is investing approximately $9 billion to transform Great Nicobar Island into a major strategic asset, including a transshipment port, airport, township, and supporting infrastructure. Located just 150 kilometers from the Strait of Malacca — one of the world's busiest shipping corridors — the island's development is seen as a response to China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean, where Beijing has secured port access in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Djibouti and regularly deploys submarines and surveillance ships.

Environmental impact

After weighing the following pros and cons, benefits, risk and mitigation strategies, the project was granted the environmental clearance by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)'s Expert Appraisal Committee in November 2022.

Flora and tree felling The project involves large‑scale diversion of forest land for infrastructure development, including a transshipment terminal, airport, township and associated facilities. According to the Government of India’s response to a parliamentary question, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change estimated that approximately **964,000 trees (about 9.64 lakh)** would be affected by tree felling associated with the project’s forest land diversion, based on figures provided by the junior environment minister in 2024. These estimates come from official annexures and responses on the environment ministry’s website, which stated that the number of trees to be felled would be about 852,245, with the figure of less than 964,000 based on the proportion of cleared forest area where felling is envisaged. Some independent scientists have expressed concern that these official estimates may be underestimates, arguing that forest density in parts of Great Nicobar is higher than assumed and that actual tree loss could be significantly greater if denser stands are cleared, potentially affecting millions of trees.

Coral