Great Nicobar project ‘commercial, not strategic’, Ramesh tells Rajnath in fresh letter
In his latest letter, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has rejected Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s contention that the Great Nicobar Island Project is a strategically vital
In his latest letter, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has rejected Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s contention that the Great Nicobar Island Project is a strategically vital national initiative. He reiterated that the scheme is “most fundamentally a commercial enterprise” for which a strategic rationale is being “invented.” Ramesh was responding to Mr. Singh’s reply of July 17, which had itself answered two of the MP’s earlier letters. Over the past two years, Mr. Ramesh has written repeatedly on the project to four Union Ministers — Environment, Forests and Climate Change; Tribal Affairs; Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and Defence — three of whom, he said, have replied.
In the July 25 letter, Mr. Ramesh argued that the trans-shipment port at Galathea Bay lay at the project’s heart and accounted for about half its budget, making it commercial “by definition.” The dual-purpose airport, the only component with a defence focus, required just 5% of the 166 sq. km sought and about 10% of the budget, he said, calling claims of the project’s overall strategic importance an “exaggeration.” He added that the Draft Master Plan for 2047 envisaged cruise tourism, casinos, theme parks and a finance hub, reading “more like an ambitious real estate project.” Ramesh also reiterated that expanding the existing INS Baaz at Campbell Bay would carry lower environmental and social costs than the greenfield airport, citing seven concerns — among them the felling of two forest-covered hills, destruction of Shompen tribal land and impacts on international bird flyways — that he said remained unrefuted.
He questioned the confidentiality of the Green Tribunal (NGT)-appointed High-Powered Committee report and urged the Minister to consult retired naval officers who have questioned the defence reasoning. In his July 17 letter, Mr. Singh had said that portraying the project as merely a costly commercial venture “grossly overlooks the strategic realities of the region.” Its proximity to vital Sea Lanes of Communication, he wrote, enhanced maritime domain awareness in ways that farther stations such as INS Kohassa or Car Nicobar could not. Developing INS Baaz as a brownfield site had been examined during the environmental impact assessment but was found unsuitable as it would entail heavy land reclamation and disturb tribal populations, flora and fauna, the Minister said.
The BriefWire