November 1, 2004
 
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A Project that was under Long Scrutiny - Sethu Samudram Ship Canal Project
-Part 3

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In this final part of this article, we will recap the history of the project. The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project was conceived more than a century ago. In order to reduce the steaming distances and take advantage of navigation along the coast and within India's territorial waters, British Commander A.D. Taylor of the Indian Marines conceived, in 1860, a proposal for cutting a ship canal called the Sethusamudram Ship Canal through Rameswaram island, connecting the Gulf of Mannar with Palk Strait. Thus, this project was originally conceived in 1860. Thereafter, almost once in every decade a committee or a prominent expert made a recommendation in favour of the construction of the canal. 

After Independence, the Indian government constituted the Sethusamudram Project Committee in 1955, with Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliyar as chairman, to examine the feasibility and desirability of connecting the Gulf of Mannar with Palk Bay and its impact on the port of Tuticorin. He pegged the initial capital outlay for the integrated Sethusamudram-cum-Tuticorin Port Scheme at Rs 9.98 crore and contemplated a draft of 26 ft. The committee recommended that the canal project be linked to the Tuticorin Harbour Project and that both projects be undertaken simultaneously.  The Sethusamudram Project Committee report was, however, put in cold storage. In 1963, the government sanctioned only the Tuticorin Harbour project and the government decided to include Sethusamudram Project for advance action. In 1975, the Tuticorin Harbour Project was completed and the traffic exceeded the forecast made. In January 1981, Ministry of Shipping and Transport (Port Wing) constituted a committee that estimated the cost of the project at Rs 282 crore. Thus, the government's enthusiasm to set up committees did not wane. Successive committees revised the cost of the project upwards. In 1994, the Tamil Nadu government requested the Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services Ltd, Chennai, to appraise and revalidate a 1983 report as a result of which the latter submitted its report in March 1996. The cost estimates indicated in the report are: for 30' draft Rs 685 crore, for 31' draft Rs 760 crore, and for 35' draft Rs 1,200 crore. They added that it would be worthwhile to implement the project initially for 31 feet draft and increase it to 35 feet wherever the approach channels are deepened in Tuticorin and Haldia. 

Hope on the project was revived in January 1999 when the then Defence Minister George Fernandes announced that the government would complete the digging of  the Sethu Samudram channel in three years. This was backed by the then Prime Minister Mr. Vajpayee's assurance that his government was committed to the project. Indeed, the government took a concrete step towards the execution of the project when the then  Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, in his Budget 2000-01, allocated Rs 4.8 crore for a feasibility study of the Sethusamudram  Ship Canal Project. Afterwards, following a directive from the Union Ministry of Shipping, the Tuticorin Port Trust invited tenders for undertaking a feasibility-cum-environment study for the project.

The "Sethusamudram Ship Canal" project proposes linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar on the east coast of India by creating a shipping canal through Rameswaram Island, which would provide a continuous navigable sea route around the Indian Peninsula. The total cost of the techno-economic viability and EIA study is expected to be around Rs 6 crore. As mentioned in the previous part of this article, this project involves digging a 44.9 nautical-mile long channel linking the Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar.  After the canal is constructed, the distance between Cape Comorin and Chennai would be reduced to 402 nautical miles from the present 755. The benefits are listed as reduction in fuel costs and standing charges associated with extra period of voyages as this canal would avoid circumnavigation of ships around Sri Lanka, as otherwise ships from the east coast of India to the west coast have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka because of a Sand Stone Reef called Adam's bridge, at Pamban, near Rameswaram, where the depth of the sea is hardly 11 feet. 

The greatest beneficiary of the project is expected to be Tuticorin harbour, which has the potential to transform into a transshipment hub such as those in Singapore and Colombo. The project will also help in the development of the proposed 13 minor ports in Tamil Nadu. Let us now have a close look at the implementation strategy of this project (as it stands now). The Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr T.R. Baalu, is confident that the detailed project report for the proposed Sethusamudram canal project would be ready by end-November 2004.  The government is banking on the report submitted by the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) on environmental impact assessment study on the Sethusamudram project. Based on this,  the Tuticorin Port Trust, the nodal agency for the Sethusamudram project, had already prepared its application seeking environmental clearance and submitted to the Tamil Nadu Pollution  Control Board.

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