One of India’s most consequential development controversies, the ₹81,000-crore Great Nicobar Island Project has divided policymakers, strategists, environmentalists, and political leaders. We survey the competing arguments.

“The Great Nicobar Island Project, which is of strategic, defence and national importance, transforms the region into a major hub of maritime and air connectivity in the Indian Ocean Region. The decision to develop Great Nicobar Island has been taken after due consideration of its ecological, social and strategic aspects.”

Bhupender Yadav (Union Minister for Environment) X 12 September 2025.

“The totally misplaced Rs 72,000 crore expenditure poses an existential danger to the island’s indigenous tribal communities, threatens one of the world’s most unique flora and fauna ecosystems and is highly susceptible to natural disasters.”

Sonia Gandhi, The Hindu, 8 September 2025.

“There is no need to conflate India’s security imperatives with a large-scale development project involving a township, tourism infrastructure, and a transhipment terminal.”

Jairam Ramesh, Assam Tribune, 29 April 2026.

“Today, as a rising China projects its economic and military power into the Indian Ocean, any strategy for regional balance would necessarily involve the economic and military development of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.”

C. Raja Mohan, Indian Express, 2 January, 2019.

“The project aims to turn Great Nicobar into the ‘Pearl of the Malacca’ through dual-use facilities, allowing India to project power further into the Indo-Pacific and serve as a crucial watchdog against the growing hostile naval presence…The environmental challenges are undoubtedly formidable. The Great Nicobar Project will ultimately be judged as much by how carefully those challenges are managed as by the economic and strategic benefits it delivers.”

Brahma Chellaney, X, 17 February 2026.

“From a defence and security perspective, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide India with strategic depth and the ability to enhance stability and ensure security in the Bay of Bengal…The recent conditional approval of the National Green Tribunal to proceed with the Great Nicobar Island Development Project is considered a step in the right direction as it also imposes safeguards to mitigate ecological damage, reflecting the understanding and need for sustainable development.”

Sarabjeet S. Parmar, Times Now, March 2026.

“The security capabilities of ANC (Andaman & Nicobar Command) need to be addressed separately and must have no linkage with the developments contemplated for GNI (Great Nicobar Island)”

Arun Prakash, Indian Express, 26, June 2024.

“Without essential elements such as a joint command architecture, without the chokepoint doctrine, without the maritime strategy document that specifies what Great Nicobar is for any infrastructure on Great Nicobar Island is a platform without a theory”.

Sudhir Pillai, ThePrint, 6 May 2026.

“A strategic location is not the same thing as a project of any size or form, and certainly not when that is mostly a large commercial project. The two are being confused on purpose to invoke national security and shout down any valid objections.”

Sushant Singh, X, 16 May 2026.

“In the current environment, and especially with China’s growing interests in the Indian Ocean region, the advantages and strategic choices offered by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in shaping the new security dynamic outweigh possible vulnerabilities.”

Darshana Baruah, The Dateline / Defense News, March 2026.

“The Great Nicobar Project is designed to transform the island into a major maritime, logistics, and military hub … It is a critical national security project to counter growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean”

Ashwini Siwach, Zee News, 14 May 2026.