Voices of caution on SethuSamudram
First from Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, “150-year dream for 150-year old ships”
Excerpts:
“…Dreams are costless, but canals are not. Project documents claim that the canal will save ships 36 hours of time and 570 nautical miles of distance.
But a recent study by Jacob John in Economic and Political Weekly exposes these claims as highly exaggerated. Up to 70% of the traffic through the canal is projected to come from Europe and Africa. And John estimates that the time saving from Europe to Kolkata will be only eight hours, and the distance saving 215 nautical miles. From Africa to Kolkata, the time taken will actually increase by 3.5 hours (being piloted through the canal is a slow process), and distance reduced will be only 70 nautical miles.
John calculates that ships could lose up to $4,992 per passage if they are charged the tariff laid down in project documents. In which case ships will find it cheaper to go round Sri Lanka. If the government cuts the proposed tariff to attract traffic, John estimates that the project’s rate of return could fall to an uneconomic 2.5%. I expect that the project will also suffer cost overruns in capital and maintenance dredging, and hence be in the red.
…The government’s environmental assessment has cleared the project on ecological grounds.
Yet, much of that assessment was not about sand incursion, but about fears of possible damage to coral reefs, coastal erosion, oil spills, and changes in ocean salinity and temperature. Besides, the ecological studies were done from the Indian side of the Palk Straits, and not the Sri Lankan side, and so are technically incomplete.
…The project envisages maintenance dredging of two million cubic metres per year, infinitely more than required by the Suez and Panama canals. Jacob suspects (and so do i) that actual maintenance dredging will far exceed project projections, rendering the canal uneconomic. An extreme event (like the 2005 tsunami) could dump enough sand to close down the canal.
Finally, global shipping is shifting to ever-larger vessels. Bulk carriers and tankers often exceed 200,000 DWT, and those under 60,000 DWT are being phased out as uneconomic. Old general cargo vessels have been replaced by container ships, which started small but now exceed 35,000 DWT, and may soon touch 75,000 DWT. Such vessels cannot use the canal.
So, 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.”
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia
Read in Full here http://www.swaminomics.org/articles/20070923.htm
The second from Ramaswamy R. Iyer, “Bridge over troubled debate“. Shri Iyer served as secretary of water resources in the Government of India.
Excerpts:
“…Let us start with the Ram Setu aspect as it has been the main subject of discussion.
The question is not whether Ram was a historical figure; or whether he built the bridge; or whether he or the monkey army could have built it; or whether indeed the feature in question is natural or man-made.
The crucial point is whether the site is sacred in the eyes of many people.
I am not sure of the answer to that question, but if it is “yes”, then that is a relevant factor in project-planning.
…If it is feasible to avoid touching the structure or feature in question (whether we call it Adam’s Bridge or Ram Setu or whatever), that would be the wisest course.
However, let us suppose that avoidance is not an available option, and that if the channel is to be built at all it will necessarily involve cutting across or otherwise damaging the “sacred” feature.
Then the question will be: how important is the channel?
Some have suggested that the national interest of all should prevail over the religious sentiment of some.
There are two questions here. First, avoiding possible trouble by refraining from injuring the feelings of a group of people may also be regarded as being in the national interest, in which case we have to balance one form of national interest against another. Second, we cannot readily assume that building the channel is in the national interest; that proposition has to be established.
…Prima facie, the project will have major ecological consequences. It is also likely to have an impact on the livelihoods of fisherfolk in the area…
…To cap it all, it has been stated that no big ship will use this channel; that they will continue to go round Sri Lanka; that only small coastal ships can use the channel; and that the channel will be economically non-viable.
If that were true, it would be a coup de grace: why incur financial, economic, social and ecological costs to build a project which is not going to be used, and which evidently no one wants?
…It is not being argued here that the answers to all the questions raised above are necessarily unfavourable to the project. However, these are relevant and important questions and we need authoritative answers.
The government may say that all these issues have been studied, that the answers are known, and that it was only after a detailed examination that the project that decision was taken. If that is the case, all that material should be put in the public domain for examination.
…therefore….stop work on the project, put all relevant material in the public domain, allow a public debate, and then review the project in the light of the comments received.”
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Read in full here: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/220328.html
Related Posts:
The search for a historical Rama?
Comrades-in-arms: UPA & Pakistani militants
Has Sh Nariman really read the Padma Purana?
Suggested Reading: Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project – by Shri Sundara Krishnaswamy
Mint ran a special series on this issue and basically trashed the project. Here are the links
http://www.livemint.com/UserControls/2007/09/11001954/Silence-controversy-shroud-Se.html
http://www.livemint.com/2007/09/11235121/Project-a-recipe-for-disaster.html
http://www.livemint.com/2007/09/12235537/No-one-benefits-from-a-Rs2600.html
There was also a series on newsinsight.com. Scientists seem to agree that the project is a stupid idea for reasons related to the environment and feasibility. The whole idea seems like a concoction by T R Baalu and his DMK cohorts to just make some money while in power. The spineless central government just keeps nodding its head to anything these guys come up with.
Prakash – Thanks for the links. I will have a look at them during the weekend.
You are right – there is a lot more than meets the eye behind the project..
Shantanu – There was also a series on the sethusamudram project on newsinsight.com. From all reports (excluding anything published by the government ofcourse), the project is impractical.
The drama is still continuing in TN. After all the verbal garbage, the DMK decides to call a bandh. How ironic is that the ruling party calls a bandh for a project that it is pushing through? Bandhs have completely lost their meaning. Atleast the supreme court was able to call the bluff.
Prakash: “How ironic is that the ruling party calls a bandh for a project that it is pushing through?” – That was brilliant!!
“Project documents claim that the canal will save ships 36 hours of time and 570 nautical miles of distance.”
Is saving all that matters? Are other factors to be totally ignored?
Any tailor will tell you that stitching sleeveless shirts and half trousers will save us about a metre of clothing material. So why not cut off our hands at the shoulders and legs at the knees? That could do wonders for our economy. But the question is, ” Is it worth it?”
This is the sort of thinking our TN politicians have. Little do they realize that they are cutting the branch on which they are perched.
The multi-crore project might fetch a fat commission to the senile politician and his cronies. But their children and grand children might not survive to enjoy the loot because of the calamity and destruction that might follow.
This mental myopia is the result of greed. It is high time UPA realized that DMK and CPM are rotten eggs. If Congress Party continues to carry them on its shoulders, they too are bound to stink. No one likes to be near anything that stinks.
The whole UPA-Left is rotten eggs. Who filed the “Ram doesn’t exist” affidavit in the SC? It is the Congress. Congress under a foreigner clan is the biggest enemy of the nation and Hindus. This clan is destroying the nation like a slow poison. And name-sake HIndus working for her as collaborators, as same name-sake HIndus worked for Mughals and British.
If Congress and its President filed the affidavit without knowledge, why they couldn’t come out openly and say sorry to the crores of Hindus? Instead, Italian lady told Karunanidhi to join hands to crush the Hindus (her only communal forces).
Bharat to have a real democracy this anti-hindu dynastic Congress have to go. I would rather support commie to destroy this Italian Congress, main enemy of Bharat and Hindus. I would follow “Enemies enemy is my friend” strategy.
Sites for info on Rama Setu.
http://www.petitiononline.com/ramsetu/petition.html
Save Sri Ram Setu Petition to President of Bharat. Please sign and forward to others. Our battle must continue till anti-hindu Congress-led Govt of Bharat completely stop work.
http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/religious/ramsetu/
http://ramasetu.org/ramasetu/index.php
Rameswaram Ram Setu Protection Movement
http://www.ramsethu.org/
Save Ram Setu site.
http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/religious/ramsetu/
Scientists intensify anti-Sethu project stir
K Gopalakrishnan, S Badrinarayanan and K S Subramanian, three retired directors general of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), are supporting the movement’s initiative and have opposed the canal project.
read more on website.
http://content.msn.co.in/News/National/NationalIANS_010907_1106.htm
Be very careful when you read wikipedia website, there are lots of mis- and dis-infomation about Hindu dharma and Bharat/India. They are typical western-run websites, with prejudices against India and Hindus.
http://www.livemint.com/2007/10/26234927/Alternative-Nfuel-mired-in-Se.html
This is another interesting perspective on the sethu project: its impact on thorium reserves and relationship to the india-us nuclear deal. Congress and DMK seem to be on the same page on this one.
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Namsthe,
I have this thought to share about the ‘Ram sethu’.
I think when RAMA and his army came to cross over to Lanka they found an irregular land bridge of rocky projections and sand bars. They must have used a
system of chain link to fill in the gaps using rocks ,
boulders and sand bags to buid a temporary crossing.
This I think is akin to the theory that about 10,000 years
ago humans crossed over from Asia to north America
over the Bering straits.
This I think atheists can accept if they accept Rama as
atleast a historical figure.
About Romila Thapar and R.S.Sharma and their ilk, these are the kind of people who would sell their country to prove a point.
Hinduism is the oldest surviving religion and I am sure
will be ther for millenia.
Mosque in Kolkata blocks airport …. did someone say Ram Setu ??
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Kolkata-airport-Map-redrawn-land-to-be-acquired-highrises-trimmed-to-save-mosque/317195/
Kolkata airport: Map redrawn, land to be acquired, high-rises trimmed to save mosque by Mouparna Bandyopadhyay
Sunday , June 01, 2008
Kolkata, May 31 Development runs deep—but devotion runs deeper. So an ancient mosque on a tiny patch of 1,200 square feet of land right next to a runway has forced a redrawing of the entire Rs 2,000-crore map to upgrade Kolkata airport.
An extra 25,000 square metres has to be acquired, crores have to be spent on building a detour and several high-rise buildings have to be compensated because they have to knock off their top floors in line with the new plan.
…The Kolkata airport has two runways: the main runway, 3,627m, that carries bulk of the air traffic, and a shorter one, 2,399 m, which is inadequate to service large aircraft, and so needs to be extended by another 440 m to the north.
But this is exactly where the 117-year old Bankra mosque — where on an average 30 people offer prayers each day under tight security — lies, less than 100 feet from the north end of the shorter runway, Also, the walls of the mosque cannot withstand vibrations caused by aircraft landing or taking off.
“We have tried to negotiate with the masjid committee numerous times. We have also tried to give them land outside the port and offered to create a replica of the masjid elsewhere but to no avail,” says SPS Bakshi, Director (Projects), Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Result: the Airports Authority of India has decided to extend the runway towards the southern side.
“This means we have to lease out more than 25,000 square metres of land to the state government for the diversion,” says another official of he AAI. The AAI will spend Rs 2 crore and the state government will provide Rs 3 crore. Also, an existing road, running from Kaikhali to Narayanpur (Rajarhat) will need to be diverted.
Then there is the issue of a new taxiway that needs to be constructed joining the northern end of both the runways. The taxiway needs to be at least 30 m wide to allow for wingspan of aircraft like A-380. As per the blueprint, the taxiway will intersect with the barb-wired path leading to the mosque. This poses a security threat and to circumvent it, a new path leading to the mosque has to be constructed. This, in all probability, will be a subway and will mean an extra Rs 20 crore, say officials.
…That’s not all. Aviation regulations have height restrictions for buildings within 10 km of the runway. The extension of the runway to the south to keep the mosque intact means that multi-storeyed buildings that were permitted in the adjacent Rajarhat area, will now need to lose some of their top floors. “This will require us to pay compensation amounting to crores, we are working this out,” said a senior AAI official. A mapping of the area is being done to identify which structures have to be trimmed accordingly.
From: Centre has already admitted Ramar Sethu is sacred: Swamy
“New Delhi: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday questioned the Centre’s stand in the Supreme Court that Ramar Sethu was not an integral part of Hindu religion and that it was not an article of faith.
In his written submissions, he said the Centre was giving dubious interpretations to the facts admitted earlier. He said the sacredness and worship of Ramar Sethu had already been admitted by the Centre and judicially noticed by the Madras High Court, and that Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project Ltd was contemplating providing a viewing gallery, along the channel alignment, for pilgrims to visit Adam’s Bridge (Ramar Sethu).
“This admission demolishes the stand of the Centre’s counsel, especially the averment that Ramar Sethu is not integral part of Hindu religion.â€
…Dr. Swamy asserted: “It is a cognisable criminal offence under Section 295 of the IPC, viz. any damage, defilement, or destruction of any place of worship or of any object held sacred by any class of persons; with the knowledge that such class of persons is likely to consider such damage, defilement, or destruction as an insult to their religion.â€
He said: “Thus, implementing the project would be prima facie a cognisable offence, and therefore its commission cannot be permitted or sanctioned.â€
He reiterated that Ramar Sethu should be declared a national monument.
Check out what the UPA wants to do within days of getting into office–yes, complete the Sethusamudram project. So much for sensitivity to Hindu beliefs. Now does anyone actually believe that Hindu religious beliefs are respected by the Indian government?
http://publication.samachar.com/pub_article.php?id=4339914
A 43 page doc report by a Chennai based group on the Rama Sethu Canal. This is very good report against the canal.
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:DBkQx5rajxcJ:www.greensl.net/docs/petition%2520sethusamudram%2520by%2520jesu%2520(04.12.04).doc+rama+sethu+on+Coastal+action+network&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
Hope this works
in the html there is a word doc on top, Shantanu, please convert this into pdf and post the report in your site.
From the above citation. i do not know if there is a copyright to this. html is accessible.
Just see the commitee members on this report
Justice Rajindar Sachar,
Former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court.
Ms. Indira Jaisingh,
Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India.
Why are they silent?
Thirdly it is claimed that dredging of sand will be dumped on wastelands and it will be done only once. We like to state that the dredging operations will be continuous and there are no wastelands along the coast. All lands along the coast are part of a fragile coastal ecosystem intertwined with the livelihood of hundreds of fishing villages. Fourthly despite our request for the earlier claimed 8 reports that have been done with regard to Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project to the Tuticorin Port Trust, we have not received a single report and in their counter affidavit to the Madras High Court, they have now claimed that there are no such reports. We have also written to the Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board requesting copies of these earlier reports. We have received in response from TNPCB that they do not have such copies of the reports and in a recent communication from them they have asked us to collect them from the Nodal Agency of SSCP, Tuticorin Port Trust. Prior to this series of Public Hearings, Thiru.T.R.Balu has again stated that the SSCP will go on. This is making a mockery of the Public Hearing process. Instead of T.R. Balu speaking in public meetings that he present his opinion in the future Public Hearings personally.
Now again as per 47 , the new minister has blown the horn again.
Again a citation from the html.
“Adam’s Bridge is a chain of Shoal, nearly seven in all, is 30 km long. Sir Emerson Tennet in his book ‘Ceylon’ writes -†The barrier known as Adam’s Bridge which obstructs the navigation in the canal between Ceylon and Ramad, consists of several parallel ledges of conglomerate and sand dunes, hard at the surface and growing course and soft as it descends till it rests on a bank of sand, apparently accumulated by the influence of current at the change of the monsoonsâ€. Also according to geological survey, it is apparent that Miocene Era limestone beds are under the Adams Bridge, which connects Jaffna peninsula in Sri Lanka and Rameswaram in India. [Ref: The pre-history of Sri Lanka by S.U.Deraniyagala]. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge’s age is also almost equivalent.
Palk Strait [PS]: PS is an inlet of Bay of Bengal. The PS is 64 kms to 137 kms wide and 137 kms long. It receives several rivers including Vaigai from India and contains many islands of Sri Lankaâ€
Again a nice none.
Everywhere in the world the canals are dug by cutting an isthmus and not a strait.
Will come with more…
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Let us, for an moment, imagine what the government position on Adam’s bridge would have been if it had been claimed by the Christians (or any other Abrahamic minority religion) as the original bridge built by one of their religious figures (say Adam of the adam and eve fame). Immediately our courts would had tried to find “proof†of Adam’s existence in the Old Testament (which is incidentally the religious book of the the Jews and not the Christians). We would have been lectured endlessly of how minorities should have first access to resources and how their sentiments need to be respected etc. by our fine Prime Minister. The Tamil Nadu government would have demanded that it be declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. And all our liberal journalists would have spun a story 24/7 on the importance of preserving our archaeological wonders. Of course, we aren’t going to see any of these simply because Hindu sentiment is dispensible. Since Hindus rarely ever resort to violence or even protest (except occasionally when their privileges are revoked, not when their rights are trampled on), their voices, even if heard, are dismissed summarily.
It is really unfortunate that Hindus need to resort to arguments of environmental degradation, lack of economic advantage etc. to rescue what we believe to a a religious monument. In the past we faced the barbaric invaders who destroyed our religious heritage. Now we face the same enemy even though we think they are different. The same iconoclastic and
Harapriya I can understand your sentiments. It is unfortunate these things happen in India alone. It is neccessary for all the holy men and women combine heritage with the environmental problems of the Rama Sethu. It is difficult , but it can be done.
About calling it Adam’s bridge, it was done by the Brits, which suited them at that time.
@ Avinash (#13): will have a look at the document.
I was just searching for the post in which my reply was sent and a gentleman posed some intelligent questions. I have to still complete my reply to that.
This post seems to be also interesting. I saw the html site in #13. I have visited the place mentioned in #13, for sight seeing. I went thru #13. It is quite a well written document, environmental point of view. It was engaging document.
If the govt still insists after this , then I am reminded of Prof Lynn White famous article in the Science journal in 1967. It was so famous that it stirred the church and many ardent church lovers.
The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis
Lynn White, Jr. Science, New Series, Vol. 155, No. 3767 (Mar. 10, 1967), pp. 1203-1207.
The entire article is here below.
http://www.zbi.ee/~kalevi/lwhite.htm
There is some brief given in wikipaedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Townsend_White,_Jr.
He argued that Judeo-Christian theology was fundamentally exploitative of the natural world because:
The Bible asserts man’s dominion over nature and establishes a trend of anthropocentrism.
Christianity makes a distinction between man (formed in God’s image) and the rest of creation, which has no “soul” or “reason” and is thus inferior.
He posited that these beliefs have led to an indifference towards nature which continues to impact in an industrial, “post-Christian” world. He concludes that applying more science and technology to the problem won’t help, it is humanity’s fundamental ideas about nature that must change; they must abandon “superior, contemptuous” attitudes that make them “willing to use it [the earth] for our slightest whim.” White suggests adopting St. Francis of Assisi as a model to imagine a “democracy” of creation in which all creatures are respected and man’s rule over creation is delimited.
If the Indian govt is like as what Prof White has written, then you must throw up environmental activists like Francis Assisi. Please do not think i am preaching here. Majority of the church big wigs have been hotch potch fellows, large course meal eating, opulent living people, but 1-2 percent like Francis Assisi have been sensible. Search for the sensible ( 1-2 percent) in all faiths and put up case as in #13. As such the majority of Indians have an emotional bind to this issue as I read the posts. Good luck.
@ JM Smith: Your earlier comment(s) are here:
“Are we heading towards a Christian India?†– excerpts
JMS – “… in which all creatures are respected …”
as when one realises the unity of creation …(?)