Rs 80,000-crore Great Nicobar Project gets NGT nod; tribunal finds 'no good ground to interfere'

The project is very important for India from the strategic point of view, the Tribunal observed

A six-member special bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday upheld the environmental clearance granted to the Great Nicobar Island mega infrastructure project, stating it found “no good ground to interfere” with the approval.

The Rs 80,000 crore project includes an international container transhipment terminal, an international airport, a power plant and a township spread across 166.10 sq km -- of which 130.75 sq km is forest land and 84.10 sq km falls under tribal territory.

The Eastern Zone Bench in Kolkata, led by Justice Prakash Shrivastava, disposed of multiple petitions challenging the clearance issued in November 2022. The tribunal also directed authorities and regulatory bodies to ensure full and strict compliance with the stipulated environmental conditions.

“We find that adequate safeguards have been provided in the EC conditions and in the first round of litigation the Tribunal had refused to interfere in the EC and remaining issues noted by the Tribunal in the first round of litigation have been dealt with by the High-Powered Committee and considering the strategic importance of the Project and taking into account the other relevant considerations, we do not find any good ground to interfere,” the tribunal said it its order, according to a report by CNN-News18.

The project is very important for India from the strategic point of view, the Tribunal observed. Observing that development in such a sensitive location must be approached with balance, the bench stressed the need for strict compliance with environmental norms, including the Island Coastal Regulation Zone (ICRZ) Notification, 2019.

The project was accorded environmental clearance in November 2022, and in-principle forest clearance was granted in October 2022.

Ashish Kothari, a senior environmental activist, filed two major pleas before the NGT, seeking the exclusion of certain areas from the project. According to him, 57 hectares of port land, 60 hectares designated for the airport, 81 hectares for a defence township and 503 hectares of general township area were located within ICRZ zones that bar development.

Reacting to the clearance, Congress said there is clear evidence that the project will have "disastrous ecological impacts". "The decision of the National Green Tribunal giving its approval to the Great Nicobar project is deeply disappointing. There is clear evidence that the project will have disastrous ecological impacts," Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said.

"The conditions for its clearance, that the NGT draws reference to, will do little to deal with these long-term consequences. The matter is, however, still under argument in the Calcutta High Court that now is the only beacon of hope," the former environment minister said in a post on X.

Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had earlier also slammed the project and alleged that the BJP-led government has made a mockery of legal and deliberative processes under the project.

Terming the Great Nicobar infrastructure project a "planned misadventure", Gandhi had said last year that it poses an existential danger to the island's indigenous tribal communities and is being insensitively pushed through, making a "mockery of all legal and deliberative processes".