Nicobar port has no ‘strategic goals’, Finance Ministry body said in 2024

Key points

• The Public Investment Board (PIB), a Finance Ministry body that appraises large public investments, had on August 2024 termed the proposed International Container Transhipment Port (ICTP) at Galathea Bay in Great Nicobar Island as lacking in “strategic objectives”.
• At the August meeting, it had advised the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) to include a strategic case into its proposal.
• A little over a year later, the same project was formally notified as a “strategic project” by the Ministry of Defence, according to records of a March 2026 meeting viewed by The Hindu.
• The “strategic” nature of the proposed ₹81,000-crore Great Nicobar Project, which consists of the ICTP, a township, airport, a gas-powered power plant and a tourism zone, has been the Centre’s excuse, since at least 2022, for not making public the contents of a report by a High Powered Committee (HPC) on the cumulative environmental impact of...