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Controversial shipping channel
plan not feasible says economist
150 year old idea for 150 year old ships, he says
Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, a noted economist and journalist with
the Economic Times of India and columnist in the Times of India has
poured scorn on a plan to build a shipping lane between India and Sri
Lanka that has already been howled down on religious grounds.
The Sethusamudram project, which is being eagerly pursued by the
Indian Government, would see ships pass through the currently
un-navigable straits between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and it is
claimed, would bring huge economic benefits to shippers and local
economies.
However it is strongly opposed by Hindus, who say that Lord Ram,
revered as a God, constructed the shoal bridge between India and Sri
Lanka, also called Adam's Bridge, and that it would be sacrilege to
destroy it.
Swaminathan however says that objection is neither here nor there, the
real objection is economics.
Writing in his regular column in the Times of India, he says that
claims that the channel would save shippers hundreds of miles and days
of steaming time are optimistic and that taking into account the slow
passage in the channel itself, such savings as would be made would be
so negligible that the canal charges would have to be much smaller
than those planned.
He claims too that constant silting of the channel would occur, given
that it would actually be a passage excavated from the sea bed rather
than something hewn out of rock, meaning expensive constant dredging
and maintenance and that a Tsunami would close the canal down.
Moreover he points out that only smaller ships could negotiate the
channel and that the larger ships on European and African trades
(which he says the project is aimed to benefit) could not make use if
it all.
Other objections to the project include environmental concerns with
objectors claiming that insufficient assessments have been made by the
Indian Government. Concerns include risks of ships colliding, the
release of toxins in disturbing the silt and seabed, the destruction
of marine habitat and so on.
In closing, with reference to the idea of the canal being mooted back
in the the 1850's, he sums up, "Sethusamundaram will be unsuitable for
the large vessels of the 21st century. It is a 150-year old idea for
150-year old ships. That may be its epitaph."
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