In 2005, the Government of India approved Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project. But in 2018, government realized that cutting across the Ram Setu may cause “Socio-economic disadvantages”.
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project is a proposed project to create a shipping route in the shallow straits between India and Sri Lanka. This would provide a continuously navigable sea route around the Indian Peninsula. The project was conceived in 1860 by Alfred Dundas Taylor
The channel would be dredged in the Sethusamudram Sea between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, passing through the limestone shoals of Adam’s Bridge (also known as Rama’s Bridge, Ram Sethu and Ramar Palam.
The project involves digging a 44.9-nautical-mile (51.7 mi; 83.2 km) long deepwater channel linking the shallow Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar.
Environmental Impact
The project would disturb the ecological balance and destroy corals and kill marine life. The area is an important fishing ground for Tamil Nadu and the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park is in the vicinity of the proposed project. Deposits of thorium, important for nuclear fuel requirements, would also be affected.
The dumping of dredged material from the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar in deeper waters would “endanger those areas, which are rich reserves containing 400 endangered species, including whales, sea turtles, dugongs and dolphins”.
