Development concerns

Nicobar project must be reconsidered

The grandiose Rs 72,000-crore infrastructure development plan for Great Nicobar Island, though formulated after prolonged deliberations, has several worrisome aspects which should not be left unaddressed. This ambitious project, to be implemented over the next 30 years, is conceived, evidently, to exploit the location advantage of this largest of the Andaman and Nicobar group of islands in the Bay of Bengal for economic and strategic gains. This territory is almost equidistant from Colombo in the southwest and Singapore in the southeast. However, the works to be undertaken as part of this project, it is feared, may adversely affect the fragile