Overview
- The administration published an Expression of Interest on August 10 inviting hyperscalers, cloud and AI firms to explore a private-sector led “Green AI/Data Centre Vertical” for Great Nicobar or Little Andaman.
- A notice dated August 14 said the EoI “stands withdrawn with immediate effect due to administrative reasons,” which is the latest public action and has not been further explained by officials.
- The EoI described renewable-powered, hyperscale data‑centre technology such as GPUs and high‑performance computing plus seawater or freshwater‑free cooling and waste‑heat recovery and named specific sea areas around Campbell Bay, Anderson Bay, Vijay Nagar Bay, Gandhi Nagar Bay, Hutbay and Netaji Nagar.
- Local Nicobarese and tribal representatives said they were not told about the proposal and are protesting elements of the larger Great Nicobar project, while a batch of petitions challenging key approvals is pending before the Calcutta High Court’s circuit bench at Port Blair.
- The fate of the idea is now uncertain and watchdogs are calling for full transparency and tribal consultation as questions grow over how any data centre would fit into the 166 sq km Great Nicobar master plan and its reported cost estimates of roughly ₹81,000–₹91,000 crore.