Office Address
123/A, Miranda City Likaoli Prikano, Dope
Phone Number
+0989 7876 9865 9
+(090) 8765 86543 85
Email Address
info@example.com
example.mail@hum.com
123/A, Miranda City Likaoli Prikano, Dope
+0989 7876 9865 9
+(090) 8765 86543 85
info@example.com
example.mail@hum.com
An international cruise
terminal to facilitate a global port-led city, high-end tourism infrastructure,
and a ship-breaking yard are among the new additions to the Rs 72,000 crore
mega-infrastructure project in Great Nicobar Island proposed by the Union
Shipping Ministry.
However, the government has also been denying right to information (RTI)
requests about environment clearances for this mega project, which includes a
military-civil airport, on the grounds that it would affect India’s security
and strategic concerns. It is not clear how the Shipping Ministry’s new
proposals will be compatible with such concerns.
Apart from the cruise
terminal, the Shipping Ministry has also sought 100 acres of land with a
seafront for a proposed ship building and ship breaking facility, and an
export-import port, in a series of letters written to the Andaman and Nicobar
Administration and the Union Home Ministry over the last eight months.
The
existing Great Nicobar project already includes an international container
transshipment port proposed at Galathea Bay, an airport, a power plant, and a
massive greenfield township and tourism project to be spread over 130 sq km of
land that is now pristine tropical forest. The project is being implemented by
the Port Blair-based Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development
Corporation Ltd (ANIIDCO). The Stage I forest clearance for diversion of 130
sq. km of forest land was granted in in October 2022 and followed in November
2022 by environmental and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearances...Given the
MHA’s stance and the consistent denial of information on the grounds that the
project required secrecy because of its strategic location and security
concerns, the Shipping Ministry’s recent
proposals stand out. There is no mention, anywhere in the Ministry’s
six-month-long running correspondence on its new proposals, about these
strategic concerns that have been used to deny information about the
environment and other risks.
