Great Nicobar Island Project Current Affairs for UPSC

The Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has proposed protection and tourism-development works around the Indira Point Lighthouse in Great Nicobar Island, India’s southernmost point. The project requires coastal-regulation approval because the proposed works fall in ecologically sensitive island coastal zones. It is important for UPSC because it links lighthouse tourism, coastal regulation, Great Nicobar’s strategic location, tsunami-induced land subsidence, maritime navigation and sustainable island development.

The Great Nicobar Island Development Project has returned to the spotlight after government sources defended the roughly Rs 81,000-crore plan as a strategically vital national initiative, rejecting the charge that it is "one of the biggest scams" and a crime against the island's natural and tribal heritage. The sources clarified that the existing INS Baaz runway will not be extended to the planned 10,000 feet because of the ecological and tribal costs, and argued that India's wider maritime needs cannot be met by expanding defence assets alone. This article explains the project's components, the strategic geography of Great Nicobar, the logic of a transshipment port at Galathea Bay, and the environmental and tribal-rights concerns at the heart of the ecology-versus-security debate.