New Delhi, 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's Parivesh website. The Automatic Weather Station will collect meteorological data necessary for scientific analysis and the engineering design of coastal and port infrastructure planning. And the geotechnical investigation encompasses soil testing and related studies for the proposed reservoirs construction and arterial road network. In Great Nicobar, the government has planned four projects - ICTT, Greenfield International Airport, Gas and Solar based Power Plant and Township; Area Development Projects - for which an area of 166.10 sq km is required. Of this, the forest area is about 130.75 sq km. The Nicobar Islands fall in the Sundaland Biodiversity Hotspot. This region covers the western half of the Indonesian archipelago, a group of some 17,000 islands stretching 5,000km , and is dominated by the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Independent experts and scientists have raised several environmental concerns with the project. These include loss of biodiversity and impacts on the indigenous people like the Shompen and Great Nicobarese. Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav last August said that "exemplary mitigation measures" have been incorporated to minimise the environmental impact of the project, "keeping the strategic, national and defence interests" in mind. There is a petition pending in the National Green Tribunal challenging various aspects of the project including environment clearance granted to it. On Thursday, a larger bench of NGT, Eastern Zone heard Ashish Kothari Vs the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. During the proceedings, the bench recommended that the Centre may wish to include heads of departments involved in the project in the monitoring of mitigation plans. ASG Aishwarya Bhati acknowledged that the projects are huge and will have an impact on biodiversity of the region. The matter has been posted for hearing on November 7....