<<<<Part
2
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.
contd>>>>
