Syllabus: Distribution of key natural resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent); factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India)
Project Rationale
- Proponents’ Argument
- Port at Galathea Bay will position India as regional maritime security and economic growth hub.
- Strategic Vision: Reduce dependence on foreign ports (Colombo, Singapore) for transshipment; capture regional container trade share.
- Proponents dismiss threats to indigenous communities and ecological collapse as exaggerated.
- Critical Assessment: Project’s advantages overstated while structural flaws and environmental costs deliberately downplayed.
Issues With the Project
- Structural Limitations
- Flawed Assumption: Creating port capacity doesn’t automatically attract traffic; Vallarpadam Port (Kerala) example demonstrates this.
- Transshipment hubs need network connectivity, feeder links, cargo base, carrier loyalty beyond infrastructure.
- Galathea Bay lacks urban centre, industrial zone, logistics base; every container must be shipped in-out.
- Missing Feeder Services: No existing feeder services unlike Colombo’s dense short-haul routes linking South Asia, East Africa, Southeast Asia.
- Subsidy Dependency: Creating a network would require massive subsidies and long-term state support, lacking commercial credibility.
- Geographical Handicap
- Remote Location: 1,200 kilometers from Indian mainland; too remote for cost-effective feeder operations.
- High Operating Costs: Containers, provisions, personnel, fuel must be shipped in raising operational expenses significantly.
- Shipping Schedule Disruption: Carriers unlikely to revise schedules for such isolated location affecting commercial viability.
- Unrealistic Targets: Colombo manages fewer than 8 million TEU yearly; Nicobar aims doubling without committed shipping lines.
- Commercial Viability Challenges
- Carrier Commitment Issue: Shipping lines reluctant disrupting entrenched trade networks at Colombo, Singapore with operational rebates.
- Cost Disadvantage: Indian terminals levy significantly higher port-calling and handling costs despite heavy infrastructure investment.
- Krishnapatnam Example: Full container services withdrawal (2024), strategic shift to bulk-cargo illustrates cost structure impact.
- Network Integration: Cost structures and established networks continue shaping shipping line decisions over new terminals.
Strategic Justification Questioned
- Military Presence: INS Baaz existing naval facility already supports surveillance operations in eastern Indian Ocean.
- Unclear Necessity: Why commercial port needed for military mission when Chinese navy hasn’t frontally challenged Indian interests.
- Transparency Concern: Strategic objectives should be pursued transparently, not disguised as commercial development projects.
Maritime Arc Integration Myth
- Maritime Arc to be created by involving Vizhinjam (Kerala), Vadhavan (Maharashtra) and Galathea Bay
- But all the three operate in fundamentally different commercial realities.
- Vizhinjam Advantage: Proximity to international shipping lanes may draw transshipment traffic from Colombo with efficiency.
- Vadhavan Independence: Has own commercial logic; could thrive independently without Nicobar connection.
- Galathea Isolation: Geographically isolated, cut off from industrial corridors, lacks organic cargo base undermining hub potential.
Logistical Ecosystem Requirement
- Viable Ecosystem: Terminal without logistics ecosystem faces steep odds regardless of infrastructure quality.
- Mainland Comparison: Galathea Bay cannot replicate mainland port performance due to inherent geographical and logistical disadvantages.
Conclusion
- Ambition Without Realism: Ambition divorced from economic and logistical realities isn’t recipe for success.
- Cautionary Lesson: World-class port with few takers yields neither influence nor development; misplaced ambition example.
- Viability Question: At stake is port’s ecological, commercial viability and whether economic, strategic transformation claims grounded in reality.
Q- Compare the factors that contribute to the success of coastal infrastructure projects in India. How do geographical location, connectivity networks, and logistics ecosystems determine commercial viability? Use relevant examples. (15 Marks, 250 words)