Lucknow: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS) has warned to launch a mass agitation if the work on the Sethusamudram project is not stopped immediately. The RSS has claimed that the ship canal project would require razing of mythological bridge linking India and Sri Lanka.The Sethusamudram project would construct a shipping canal linking Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
RSS Spokesman Adheesh said the project would require destruction of the Ram Setu or Adam’s Bridge, a 48-kilometre chain of limestone shoals that once linked Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu to Mannar in Sri Lanka. Legend has it that the bridge was constructed by Lord Rama
"We condemn this project that might destroy a historical heritage, and demand that the government stops work immediately. Last year on Ram Navmi around four million people had signed a letter to the President requesting him to direct the government to do the same. We warn the government of a mass movement in collaboration with environment groups and others if it does not take steps soon enough," Adheesh said.
Apart from disregarding Hindu sentiments, the government was ignoring experts who suggested alternatives, he alleged.
"Alternative routes have been suggested by experts. But unfortunately the ministers in the Centre have paid no heed to public requests and concerns raised in the Parliament. They have refused to listen to oceanographists who have suggested at least four other alternate routes," he said.
Environmentalists have warned that the project could have disastrous consequences for the marine and coastal ecosystems of Sri Lanka.
Under the 560 million dollars ‘Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project’ (SSCP), a channel will be dredged in the shallow portion of the sea off the southern tip of India so that vessels of up to 30,000 tonnes, including Indian Navy patrol vessels, will not have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka.
Work on the project, first proposed almost a century ago, was started in 2005. It would reduce sailing time between the east and west coasts and is seen as a major trigger for the development of ports in the region.
Freighters sailing from India would no longer have to detour south around the bottom of Sri Lanka, saving up to 400 nautical miles (730 km) and 36 hours. Sethusamudram literally the sea with the bridge was first conceived in 1860, about the same time digging started for the Suez Canal in Egypt, by a British Naval officer.
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