A seven-member Independent Multi-disciplinary Expert Group, constituted under orders of the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in July 2024, has submitted its evaluation of the Social Impact Assessment study for the proposed Greenfield International Airport at Great Nicobar Island, recommending the project proceed whilst calling for rigorous safeguards for the 248 families facing displacement. 
The Expert Group, formed on 30 July 2024 under Order No. 437, included senior officials from settlement and public works departments, gram pradhans from the two affected villages, a professor from IIT Kharagpur, and a member secretary from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The group conducted multiple rounds of internal review, held consultations with project proponent ANIIDCO and the Airport Authority of India, and undertook an on-ground site visit to Gandhi Nagar and Shastri Nagar in Great Nicobar Island before finalising its report in September 2024. 
The proposed airport forms part of a broader holistic development initiative for Great Nicobar Island envisaged by NITI Aayog, which also encompasses an International Container Transhipment Terminal, a township, and a power plant. The project has been classified as serving defence, strategic, national security, and public purposes under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. 
The total land requirement for the airport stands at 834.64 hectares, comprising 337.36 hectares of private land and 497.28 hectares of government land. Gandhi Nagar village will contribute 506.75 hectares and Shastri Nagar 327.89 hectares. Of the 263 families identified as potentially affected, 248 were surveyed and all expressed willingness to voluntarily surrender their land. The remaining 15 households could not be located or declined to participate in the survey process. The Airports Authority of India confirmed in writing that the land parcel identified represents the bare minimum required, with the Detailed Project Report prepared by consultants M/s Engineers India Ltd. covering a 50-year development horizon through to 2075 across four phased stages. 
The social impacts identified in the assessment include displacement of farming and plantation-dependent families, loss of livelihoods for workers in the Border Roads Organisation, coconut industry, and agriculture, erosion of property rights, and broader social disruption for communities with multi-generational ties to the land. The expert group noted with particular emphasis that the emotional dimension of displacement had been inadequately captured in the original SIA report, observing that the affected population — many of whom were descendants of ex-servicemen settlers relocated to the island in the 1960s and 1970s as a security measure had already endured displacement due to the 2004 tsunami. The committee recommended that the historical and emotional connection of communities to their land be formally documented and recognised. 
Community demands recorded during stakeholder meetings included compensation calculated at Port Blair circle rates, government employment for every affected family commensurate with educational qualifications, INR 50,000 per coconut tree and equivalent compensation for betel nut trees, land-for-land exchanges with two-bedroom houses, rehabilitation close to the airport, equal compensation across both villages, and the construction of a memorial honouring ex-defence settlers. 
The expert committee, after evaluating four alternative sites, confirmed the Gandhi Nagar and Shastri Nagar location as the most technically and socially suitable. It noted that two of its own members were stranded in Sri Vijaya Puram on two separate occasions during the site visit due to weather disruptions, an experience it cited as direct evidence of the critical need for improved air connectivity to the island. 
All seven committee members unanimously concluded that the land to be acquired was the minimum necessary, that alternative sites had been duly explored, that public purpose was clearly established, and that project benefits outweighed associated social costs. The report was submitted to the Department of Social Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, for further action. 
Source: SIA