India Advances $9 Billion Great Nicobar Plan Amid Focus On Global Trade Routes
NEW DELHI -India is moving ahead with plans to build a strategic outpost in the Indo-Pacific, expanding its defense focus toward some of the world’s busiest shipping routes in Southeast Asia, according to a report.
India is pushing forward with a $9 billion infrastructure project on Great Nicobar Island, located near one of the world’s most critical shipping arteries and far from the Indian mainland.
“It leverages Great Nicobar’s strategic location to strengthen India’s national security, maritime and defense presence in the Indo-Pacific while simultaneously embedding strong environmental safeguards and tribal welfare mechanisms,” the Indian government said in a press statement issued on May 1.
Great Nicobar Island is located about 150 km from the western entrance of the Strait of Malacca, a narrow waterway between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
The Strait of Malacca, jointly managed by the three Southeast Asian countries, is the shortest route between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea and carries more than a quarter of global sea trade.
“The project is attracting attention as disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, following the US-Iran-Israel conflict, bring focus to other vulnerable maritime chokepoints,” the report noted.
As part of the project, an international container trans-shipment terminal will be established, along with a dual-use civil and military airport, a power plant and a township on Great Nicobar Island.
The report said analysts believe expansion of existing airstrips on the island would facilitate operations of fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, while new jetties and logistics hubs would strengthen naval operations.
Retired Brigadier Arun Sahgal, Director of the Forum for Strategic Initiatives in New Delhi, said the ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, which has severely disrupted sea traffic since the Iran conflict began, has underlined the need to secure trade routes and strengthen India’s defense posture.
Harsh Pant, Vice-President at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, said the project would significantly strengthen India’s maritime capabilities in the Indo-Pacific.
“It enhances India’s ability in the maritime space, whether it is for surveillance, monitoring of shipping traffic, or potential naval operations. The Great Nicobar Island has been talked of as a permanent forward base for military power projection. So essentially it strengthens India’s presence in the Indo-Pacific,” Pant said. (IANS)
