The Mirage of Port-led Development in Great Nicobar

The Project’s ‘Advantages’ and ‘Costs’

• The project’s ‘advantages’ are overstated, with its structural flaws and environmental costs often downplayed.

• The project’s advantages are based on the assumption that creating port capacity automatically attracts traffic.

• The project’s structural limitations include no real hinterland, no urban centre, industrial zone, or logistics base to support the port.

• The project’s geographical isolation may be its biggest handicap, as it is about 1,200 kilometers from the Indian mainland, making it too remote to support cost-effective feeder operations.

Misplaced Imperatives

• The port’s economic rationale is strengthened by its strategic utility, which is bolstered by a forward military presence in Great Nicobar.

• The vision of integrating with Vizhinjam (Kerala) and Vadhavan (Maharashtra) to form a seamless maritime arc is fanciful, as these ports operate in distinct maritime theatres and are shaped by fundamentally different commercial realities.

• The project’s lack of logistics is a result of carrier commitments often shaped by a reluctance to disrupt entrenched trade networks.

• The success of Vizhinjam is a case of shipping relationships driving merchant traffic rather than organic demand.

• A terminal lacking a viable logistics ecosystem faces steep odds.

• The Great Nicobar project is ambitious, but ambition, divorced from economic and logistical realities, is no recipe for success.

Great Nicobar economic impact is important topic for Civil service exam (WBCS).

🚨Daily Current Affairs MCQ pdf download- Google Drive Link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PN6A2mDkCngLsGR115zhZ_vTV8W7AKN8?usp=drive_link

✅Telegram channel link: https://t.me/TheSoumyaSir

✅Attempt the daily current affairs test in our free section of app (android and ios) : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.iron.rrnvu

✅ Interview related telegram group https://t.me/IASWBCSInterview 🔥 Book free consultation with WBCS Gr A Officer: https://bit.ly/Free-Appointment-with-Soumya-Sir-Other-WBCS-A-Officer

✅ Courses https://www.wbcsmadeeasy.in/courses/

✅ Attempt previous years questions : Link: https://bit.ly/wbcs-pyq-wbcsmadeeasy

✅ Take subject wise Chapterwise mock test : https://bit.ly/wbcs-prelims-all-subjects-chapter-wise-test

✅ Bio – https://bit.ly/m/wbcs-made-easy

✅ App download – Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.iron.rrnvu&pcampaignid=web_share (iOS available too)

WBCS MADE EASY www.wbcsmadeeasy.in

8274048710/8585843673

Jawahar IAS www.jawaharias.in

7439954855