Why India needs the Great Nicobar Project-new great games in the Eastern Indian Ocean

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The second is the determined effort of China to pressurise Thailand for the construction of the Kra Isthmus canal that would provide direct maritime connectivity between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. With these developments brewing, India’s answer is the long-pending Great Nicobar Island Development Project. In February 2026, the National Green Tribunal dismissed fresh challenges to the project’s environmental and coastal clearances, allowing it to proceed. A master plan was subsequently notified for its completion in three phases, with the final stage targeted for 2047. The mega project, however, has invited sustained opposition from the Congress party….