India's islands — the Andamans, Nicobars and Lakshadweep — were long treated as remote outposts, valued mainly for strategic reach. Development stayed minimal for decades. An Island Development Agency, set up in June 2017, and a NITI Aayog road map reframed them as engines of the blue economy and forward bases guarding India's sea lanes, with Great Nicobar as the flagship.
Islands & Great Nicobar
Islands & Great Nicobar
India's Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands sit astride the world's busiest shipping lanes but have long been remote and underdeveloped. A wave of projects — led by the Great Nicobar project — aims to turn them into strategic and economic hubs.
166 sq km
Great Nicobar project area
14.2 mn TEU
Galathea Bay capacity (planned)
~130 sq km
Forest to be diverted
Key milestones since 2014
2017
Island Development Agency set up
2019
Island tourism plans finalised
2020
Andaman undersea cable inaugurated
2022
Great Nicobar forest diversion approved
2023
New Port Blair airport terminal
2023
Galathea Bay port estimate: ₹44,000 crore
2024
Lakshadweep gets submarine fibre link
2026
Great Nicobar plan in three phases
2014
0milestones
20142026
Why it matters The islands guard India's maritime approaches and could capture transshipment trade that today flows to foreign ports — and the Great Nicobar programme is being built with a dedicated environmental and tribal-welfare safeguards framework.
- Great Nicobar project area: 166.10 sq km, in three phases to 2047
- Galathea Bay port: 14.2 million TEU planned (May 2026)
- Nearly 75% of India's transshipment cargo was handled abroad (Ministry of Ports, 2023)
History
Notable projects
The centrepiece is the Great Nicobar Island Development Project: a planned transshipment port at Galathea Bay (14.2 million TEU, about 40 nautical miles from the main East-West shipping route), a greenfield international airport, a township and a 450 MVA gas-solar power plant. Elsewhere, undersea fibre now links the Andamans and Lakshadweep to the mainland, and Lakshadweep is being opened for tourism.
How it works
Great Nicobar's logic is geography: it lies about 40 nautical miles from the main East-West international shipping route, and nearly 75% of India's transshipment cargo has been handled at foreign ports, mainly Colombo, Singapore and Klang. A deep-water port there could capture that traffic and give the navy a forward presence. The port is planned under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, with private operators on a public-private partnership (landlord) model.
Outlook
If built, the Galathea Bay port would open in phases, with a planned capacity of 14.2 million TEU (a PIB backgrounder of May 2026 sets Phase I of the Great Nicobar project for 2025–35) — potentially transforming India from a transshipment customer into a hub. It anchors a wider plan to make the islands strategic and economic assets rather than distant dependencies.
By the numbers
Galathea Bay port: 14.2 million TEU planned (May 2026), estimated at Rs 44,313 crore (PM GatiShakti Network Planning Group, August 2024); project area 166.10 sq km, including 130.75 sq km of forest land; nearly 75% of India's transshipment cargo handled abroad (2023). No total project cost has been published. Sources: PIB; NITI Aayog; Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways; Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.
Data current to: Project plan, phases 2025–2047
Source: PIB backgrounder on the Great Nicobar Project (1 May 2026, linked), drawing on NITI Aayog and the environment and ports ministries. Planned components: an International Container Transshipment Terminal at Galathea Bay with 14.2 million TEU capacity, a greenfield international airport for 4,000 peak-hour passengers, a 450 MVA gas-and-solar power plant and a township, on 166.10 sq km (including 130.75 sq km of forest land), in three phases from 2025 to 2047. These are plans, not completed works. The backgrounder gives no total project cost; a PIB release on the PM GatiShakti Network Planning Group put the port alone at Rs 44,313 crore (August 2024). No official year-by-year series of transshipment handled in India exists, so no chart is shown. · link