Chennai, Sept. 13: When the Dredging Corporation of India sent its crane-fitted ship Hanuman to rescue the Sethusamudram canal project after a series of mishaps hit it, few would have missed the irony in the name.
The local people claimed the project was cursed because it involved dredging a chain of islets they believed to be the mythological bridge built by Ram’s monkey army, led by Hanuman, to allow him to reach Lanka and rescue Sita.
The Rs 2,427-crore project, which looks to connect India’s east and west coasts and save Rs 1,000 crore a year in shipping costs, had already had three false starts since work began late last year.
The first dredging vessel, Duck 6, sank and the second, Aquarius — the Dredging Corporation of India’s (DCI’s) largest — broke its spud. Thangan, the rescue ship, saw its crane collapse.
By then, the local belief about “Ramar setu” was echoing far away in northern India with Sangh parivar activists and others filing petitions in the Supreme Court demanding protection for it.
Officials couldn’t say if the choice of Hanuman as the rescue ship was deliberate — for religious or political reasons — but things began looking up after it was pressed into service.
But even Hanuman couldn’t save what was cursed in the name of Ram. Late last month, the Supreme Court asked the DCI not to dredge through the chain of partly submerged limestone shoals, known as Adam’s Bridge.
Work is now confined to a spot 4-5km north of the area while the Sethusamudram Corporation Limited (SCL), in charge of the project, awaits the court’s final verdict.
Only a 300-metre gap needs to be carved out through the 32km Adam’s Bridge, which runs from Dhanushkodi near Rameshwaram to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The 167km canal would cut India’s inter-coast shipping routes, which now go around Sri Lanka, by 424 nautical miles and save 30 hours in sailing time.
The Sangh parivar wants the islet chain protected as a national monument and claims there are several alternative routes that would be good enough for the canal.
