The much-touted Sethusamu-dram ship canal project, which had been in the eye of controversy since its inception 15 years ago, seems to have fallen out of favour with the government. The shipping ministry has recommended no funding for capital dredging in the 12th Five Year Plan. Instead, it has only asked for a “token outlay” of Rs 100 crore for the 2012-17 period.
Industry experts say the government is only ensuring the survival of the project down-country. “The token allocation is just to keep the project alive,” says Vishwas Udgirkar, senior director, Deloitte. “There is no concrete plan. It is still in the preliminary stages.”
Senior ministry officials say an environmental study by a committee led by R K Pachauri, director general of The Energy & Resources Institute, does not favour the project. Reason: environmental hazards. The panel is examining an environmental impact assessment study by the National Institute of Oceanography over one year. The institute submitted its draft final report in July last year.
The long-awaited project is sub judice after environmental concerns were raised against the endeavour linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping channel through the shallow sea.
The Supreme Court had last asked the Pachauri Committee to submit its feasibility report on the proposed project by March 2012.
The Chennai-headquartered project was sanctioned on June 1, 2005, at a cost of Rs 2,427.40 crore in the Tenth Five Year plan with an outlay of Rs 604 crore.
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The balance was to spill over into the (current) 11th Plan. A total quantity of 28.42 Mm3 capital dredging was carried out. The dredging in Adams Bridge region was stopped following Supreme Court’s orders of August 31, 2007, and September 14, 2007.
The project has been envisaged to provide a direct navigable sea route between India’s east and west coasts within own territorial waters.
Sethu Samudram, which is the sea that separates Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, encompasses the Gulf of Mannar the Palk Strait. A shoal of islands and bays that separate them is called the Adam’s Bridge.
Currently, the ships coming from the west coast of India and other western countries with destination in the east coast of India and also in Bangladesh and China among others have to navigate around Sri Lankan coast.
It is in order to reduce the steaming distances between the east and west coast of India and to improve the navigation within territorial waters of India that a navigation channel connecting the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay through north of Adam’s Bridge has been envisaged. The benefit: the ships moving between the east and west coasts of India need not go around Sri Lanka.