Nicobar project to safeguard Indo-Pacific interests, Rajnath tells Congress
In Parliament, the Ministry of Defence set out the strategic rationale for the ₹81,000 crore Great Nicobar Island Development Project (GNIDP), describing it as designed to safeguard India's maritime and commercial interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
The project's centrepiece is the Galathea Bay International Container Transshipment Terminal, along with a greenfield dual-use (civil-military) airport, a gas-solar hybrid power plant, and township development on Great Nicobar Island.
The strategic case rests on the island's location roughly 150 km from the Strait of Malacca, positioned to strengthen India's presence along key Indian Ocean shipping lanes.
The rationale was contested in Parliament, with an alternative position holding that the project is primarily a commercial transshipment venture rather than a defence-driven one (covered separately).
The Ministry of Defence has separately reviewed expansion of a strategic airfield in the Nicobar Islands, reflecting the broader military infrastructure build-up in the archipelago alongside the transshipment project.
The Strait of Malacca as a Maritime Chokepoint
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow sea passage between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, connecting the Indian Ocean (via the Andaman Sea) to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. It is one of the world's most strategically vital shipping chokepoints, carrying a large share of global trade and energy shipments, including a substantial portion of China's oil imports.
Key Details
- Great Nicobar Island sits close to the northern approach of the Strait, near the Six Degree Channel and the Ten Degree Channel, both used by international shipping transiting toward Malacca and the Singapore Strait.
- The Ten Degree Channel, which lies within India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between the Andaman and Nicobar groups, is among the busiest and most strategically sensitive shipping corridors globally.
- Control of choke-point-adjacent territory allows a coastal state to monitor and, if required, influence shipping traffic — a factor cited in India's naval planning for the islands.
The proximity of Great Nicobar to the Strait of Malacca is the central strategic argument advanced for the project — a permanent deep-water port and airfield here would extend India's surveillance and response reach over one of the busiest maritime corridors in the world.
Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) — India's Only Tri-Service Command
The Andaman and Nicobar Command, headquartered at Port Blair, is the Indian Armed Forces' first and only unified tri-service theatre command, bringing Army, Navy, and Air Force assets under a single three-star officer (rotated among the services).
Key Details
- Established in 2001, explicitly to safeguard India's strategic interests in Southeast Asia and secure the approaches to the Strait of Malacca through rapid deployment capability.
- ANC conducts the biannual Coordinated Patrols (CORPAT) with Thailand and Indonesia, the annual SIMBEX exercise with Singapore, and the biennial multilateral Milan naval exercise, hosted from the islands.
- The command's mandate covers both conventional deterrence and non-traditional security roles such as anti-piracy patrol, disaster response, and maritime domain awareness in the eastern Indian Ocean.
The Great Nicobar airfield and port are framed as force-multipliers for the existing ANC footprint, adding permanent civil-military dual-use infrastructure to a command that has historically operated with limited fixed basing in the southern Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
Indo-Pacific Strategy and India's "Act East" Maritime Posture
"Indo-Pacific" refers to the connected strategic space spanning the Indian and Pacific Oceans, a framework India has increasingly used to describe its maritime diplomacy and security engagement, linked to its Act East Policy and initiatives such as the Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) doctrine (2015).
Key Details
- India's Indo-Pacific approach emphasises freedom of navigation, a rules-based maritime order, and infrastructure connectivity, articulated through platforms such as the Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia) and IORA (Indian Ocean Rim Association).
- Analysts frequently discuss competing regional port and infrastructure investments by China across the Indian Ocean littoral (sometimes termed the "String of Pearls" thesis) as part of the wider strategic backdrop to India's own port-building in its island territories.
- A forward-positioned Indian port and airbase on Great Nicobar is presented as strengthening India's ability to project presence and provide logistics support in the eastern Indian Ocean without dependence on foreign transshipment hubs.
The government's Parliamentary submission linked the project directly to this Indo-Pacific framing, arguing that a sovereign transshipment and airbase capability at Great Nicobar reduces dependence on foreign-controlled ports and reinforces India's regional maritime posture.
- Total project cost: approximately ₹81,000 crore across all four components (port, airport, power plant, township).
- Transshipment terminal: Galathea Bay International Container Transshipment Terminal, planned total capacity of 16 million TEU, with Phase-I capacity of 4 million TEU targeted by 2028.
- Dual-use airport: greenfield civil-military facility at Chingen, cleared in 2026 at an estimated cost of ₹13,000 crore, with a peak-hour capacity of around 4,000 passengers.
- Distance from Great Nicobar to the Strait of Malacca: approximately 150 km.
- Andaman and Nicobar Command established: 2001, at Port Blair — India's only tri-service theatre command.