By Arun on September 19, 2007 From funhike.blogspot.com
The Sethusamudram ship canal project, first approved by the NDA regime in October 2002, was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 2 2005. Here's a look at what the project is actually about:
- The Sethusamudram shipping canal project proposes linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping canal.
- The project involves dredging 82.5 million cubic metres of the Adam's Bridge or the Ram Setu. When completed, the canal will be 167 kilometers long and its estimated cost is approximately Rs 2427 crores.
- This is the country's first effort at dredging a navigation channel that is 30-40 kilometres offshore. The project promises to save travel time and cost drastically.
- As of now, ships traversing from India's east coast to the west coast have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka due to this bridge located southeast of Rameswaram.
- Once the canal is ready, ships can navigate through the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, and enter the Bay of Bengal directly, thereby reducing the distance for ships by 780 kilometres and sailing time by up to 30 hours.
- But the project has been challenged in the Supreme Court. Besides Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, the Sangh Parivar, too, is opposed to it because of its supposed links with Lord Ram and his vanarasena.
- Dredging parts of the bridge they say would only destroy the remnants of Ram's legacy. The Government has told the Supreme Court that the Adam's bridge is merely a sand and coral formation and not a man-made structure.
- While the Sangh and the Government slug it out in court over the historicity of the bridge, there are some who think the project is a recipe for ecological disaster.
- Ecologists say the effect of the 2004 tsunami was cushioned by Adam's Bridge and dredging would only make coastal areas more vulnerable in the event of another tsunami.
- They also add that the bridge maintains the ecological balance necessary for marine life by checking the rough waters of the Bay of Bengal.