Genuine questions



Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP) was innuagurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week. Sonia Gandhi and Karunanithi were the cheif guests. V. Gopalsamy who fought for the project for years was not even invited as Karunanidhi wanted to hod the limelight all by himself. Jayalalitha boycotted the event. What I want to talk is not about the Sethu politics but the project itself.

Technically it's not Sethusamuthram but Sethu Canal, as in Suez Canal. If you were wondering, SSCP is a new project approved by central government which is touted to redefine the economy of South Eastern Tamil Nadu. SSCP envisages dredging of a ship channel across the Palk Straits between India and Srilanka so that ships sailing between the east and west coasts of India can use India's territorial waters, instead of having to circumvent Sri Lanka. This will save upto 424 nautical miles (780 Km) and upto to 30 hours in sailing time.

As idealistic and profitable as this project seems, it's basically wrought with a lot of inherent issues. Despite the tall claims made in the government Web site, many issues are not even considered in the project study.

1. The ships circumventing Sri Lanka currently use Colombo as a temporary base. Post Sethu, they may have to use Tuticorin Port but Tuticorin Port does not have capacity nor infrastructure to manage these ships.
2. The Palk Straits will be deepened to clear the shallow waters. This is not a one-time investment. The sand beds will reform and they have to be cleared again. This will be an ongoing maintenance work. This is neither factored nor budgeted in the project.
3. The deepening of the straits will negatively impact the occeanic life immensely. This will have some unexpected ecological turnabouts. This may not be a good news for an already tsunami affected south-eastern coast.
4. Changes in occeanic life will also impact the fishing business. There are close to five lach fisher-folk dependent on the project-affected area.
5. As must as this project will help international ships from saving money by cutting travel time, there is no saying how much will they be charged for using the canal (like a toll) and what will be the difference between saving fuel costs vis-a-vis the toll. Refer to a Hindu essay on the feasibility
6. There is no cost-benefit analysis or ROI done for this project and also how the project-affected (like fishermen) will be compensated.

After reading this, you may have a very genuine question. If all this were even half-true, why are our politicians so gung-ho about this project and why are they going ahead with it? Our policy makers aren't ignorant to these observations. During the innauguration, T. R. Baalu, the Minister for Shipping was quite rhetoric calling those doubting the project as anti-development.

I can't help recalling Sardar Sarovar Dam project in Narmada valley. The people who opposed the dam were/are called traitors, unpatriotic or anti-development.

But the questions still remain unanswered.

Till date, the governments of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have not answered the pertinent questions on resettlement, deforestation, desilting and other econological impacts of Sardar Sarovar project. Instead, those who raised the questions were called backwards. The same is happening with Sethusamuthram.

Then why are they still going for it? SSCP is going to cost some 2233 crores. Imagine the number of contracts and tenders and businesses it will generate and how much money can be made by these ministers and political parties concerned. Ten years later, who is really going to be bothered if Sardar Sarovar or Sethu bomb miserably?

Basically who cares?