Review committee set to clear Rs 41,000 crore Nicobar Port project

A high-powered committee (HPC) formed to scrutinise the environmental clearance (EC) given to the Centre’s ambitious Great Nicobar transshipment port project is likely to give its all-clear to the proposed project, which has been halted since April, multiple senior officials told Business Standard. On April 3, the Kolkata Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) put a two-month stay on any further work in the EC granted to the project. The Rs 41,000 crore project would be on hold until the NGT-appointed committee scrutinises the green approval granted by the Centre, read the order.

The committee was given two months to scrutinise “unanswered deficiencies” in the EC, which allegedly failed to address severe environmental and regulatory concerns related to the development of the mega port, which the Centre aims at building in a public-private partnership mode.

“Recently, it was informed that the panel has found the clearance of the project satisfactory, and all concerns raised in the petition have been allayed,” said a senior government official.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the HPC has formally sent its report to the NGT, but sources in the know confirmed that the committee has not sought a deadline extension from the tribunal.

Since no physical work has started on the project, the stay enforced by the green tribunal was largely procedural and has not had any large impact on the work, one of the two officials said. “Over the past two months, there was no adverse feedback on which responses had been sought by the panel from executing agencies,” added the official.

The ministry is currently working on an enhanced project report for the container transshipment port to be built at Galathea Bay after undertaking a review of the maps submitted by the petitioners in the case to examine the discrepancies being alleged. Transshipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination before being taken to the final destination. Currently, 75 per cent of India’s transshipment cargo is handled outside India. “We have not been given a hearing by the committee, and we are not aware of any of the decisions taken by them,” said Debi Goenka, one of the petitioners in the case.

According to the NGT order, the HPC was mandated to look into the potential destruction of 4,518 corals during the project's development, along with the legitimacy of the impact assessment report, which had data for one season instead of the required three. A part of the project was also allegedly located in a coastal regulation zone, where port construction is prohibited.

Meanwhile, concerns over the autonomy of the probe panel remains. “The same people who have approved the project are part of the committee that is reviewing it. There are no independent experts. There is a lack of sensitivity towards those who would be impacted by such infrastructure projects,” said Goenka.

The HPC is headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Other members of the panel are the chief secretary of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the Zoological Survey of India, the Botanical Survey of India, the Central Pollution Control Board, a nominee for vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, a nominee for secretary of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and the director of the Wildlife Institute of India.

The project assumes significance for India as no major port has the infrastructure or the geographical location required for the facilitation of mega container ships, and most of the transshipment of huge cargo ships happens in countries like Sri Lanka and Singapore, which are closer to established shipping routes. While India has previously made moonshot attempts at building transshipment ports, most are economically or environmentally unviable.

The project focuses on three key drivers that can result in making it a leading container transshipment port: strategic location in terms of proximity (40 nautical miles) with the international shipping trade route, availability of natural water depths of over 20 metres, and carrying capacity of transshipment cargo from all the ports in the vicinity, including Indian ports, as the shipping ministry said in January.

Nine parties, including major players such as Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, JSW Infrastructure, and the state-owned Container Corporation of India, had shown initial interest in building the port.

Queries sent by Business Standard to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways did not receive a response until the publication of this report.