India, Oct. 31 -- Recent approvals issued for the Great Nicobar infrastructure project indicate that preliminary work on the township and the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) will start soon.

To be sure, the quantum of forest land diversion - 1 square metre (sq m) in one case and 195 sq m in another - is almost insignificant, but the reasons for it, setting up an automatic weather station, and digging bores to test the soil suggest that this is an important step in the construction of he proposed port at Galathea Bay, and a township at Great Nicobar, both under the Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island Project.

Details of the diversions, approved October 15 and May 7, were uploaded on the environment ministry...