Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh, on Friday (June 12, 2026), wrote to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh urging him to reconsider the rejection of a full runway expansion at INS Baaz on Campbell Bay. He argued that the alternative now being pursued — a greenfield airport at Galathea Bay in Great Nicobar — carries far heavier ecological and social costs than the government has acknowledged.

The letter follows the Defence Ministry’s June 8 assertion that India would invest around ₹13,000 crore in a dual-use airport and runway for civilian and naval operations, to be completed within five years and jointly funded with the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Officials have described the airport, to be operated by the Indian Navy, as a strategic asset that would sharpen maritime domain awareness, logistics support and rapid deployment in the Indo-Pacific. Great Nicobar lies about 40 km from the Six Degree Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Mr. Ramesh’s letter responds to media reports, attributed to Defence Ministry sources, that runway expansion at INS Baaz would be limited because lengthening it beyond 4,500 feet would damage the surrounding environment. He questioned the timing of that concern. “I appreciate the sudden worry for ecological protection,” he wrote, before listing what he said were the greater costs of the Galathea Bay site.

The proposed airport, he wrote, would require cutting two forest-covered hills of 115 metres and clearing around 225 acres of protected forest and 130 acres of deemed forest that form part of the territory of the Shompen tribal community. About 142 acres sit on Island Coastal Regulation Zone-1A land — the most protected category under the 2019 coastal notification — and take in turtle-nesting beaches, corals and breeding grounds of the endangered Nicobar megapode. The project would also involve reclaiming a creek, relocating saltwater crocodiles, and moving 234 ex-servicemen settler families who, he said, would be displaced for a third time in recent years.

Mr. Ramesh further argued that the site had not undergone a serious environmental assessment, despite Great Nicobar being designated an Important Bird Area and lying on two international migratory routes, the Central Asian and East Asian-Australasian flyways. The Galathea Bay site was declared a dual-purpose airport by the Union Home Ministry in March 2022, and he noted that the Defence Ministry had taken years to comment on it publicly, “albeit verbally and anonymously.”

He asked the Minister to reconsider rejecting the full INS Baaz expansion, which he said some senior naval officers had themselves recommended.

The government has defended its choice. Officials say five sites, including INS Baaz, were assessed before Galathea Bay was selected, with technical constraints and environmental concerns rendering the Campbell Bay option unviable. They maintain that more than 81% of the island will remain under forests and conservation zones, that a ₹2,220-crore conservation package will run over 30 years, and that no physical displacement of tribal communities is planned. The project, they add, is expected to generate over one lakh jobs.

Mr. Ramesh said he had copied the letter to Environment Minister, Bhupendra Yadav.