The question is no longer whether the war will expand. It has. The next few days will tell us whether the war stabilises around Hormuz or whether the Strait itself becomes the trigger for a far larger rupture. What to watch for over the next 48 hours is simple: Any move by the US toward direct naval control of the Strait; any credible Iranian attempt to disrupt or mine shipping lanes and, critically, whether energy infrastructure in the Gulf continues to be targeted.If those lines are crossed in tandem, the war will no longer be containable within the region.
'Historically, India has depended on the Middle Eastern Gulf for nearly 90 per cent of its LPG imports. Shifting to alternative suppliers is not something that can happen quickly.'
'Areas within 100 km of the landfall could suffer catastrophic effect.'
The move comes days after the Indian Navy also warned of a possible terror attack from the sea side.
Seventeen containers on board amerchant vessel slipped off Okha West and began floating in sea prompting the Gujarat Maritime Board to sound an alert for ships approaching Gulf of Kutch, a major corridor for crude oil imports.
The National Board for Wildlife, headed by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, rejected some big projects, including a port project in Gujarat, signalling that the ministry would not clear projects in ecologically sensitive zones.
"We have reached a conclusion that river Saraswati existed, it flowed. It originated in the Himalayas and met gulf at the western sea," Professor K S Valdiya, who led the panel, said while handing over the report to the government.
Indian Navy on Saturday commissioned a new base, INS Sardar Patel, in Porbandar, Gujarat.
While the Saudi drone strike has put the focus back on anti-drone measures, caution also stems from the fact that India has a number of large oil refining assets close to India-Pakistan border.
JNPT, the country's largest container port at Navi Mumbai, and Kandla in Gujarat's Kutch, the largest port by total cargo, will come together to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to operate the terminal at Chabahar, under a revenue-share agreement with the Port and Maritime Organisation, Iran.
He said that as the previous government could not do it, he had to do it.
'Bolstering India's conventional military capability against China is in America's strategic interest,' says military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
For the remaining projects, it is difficult to arrive at an estimate.
