Rama Sethu and the Sethusamudram project - mired in controversies / poor economics

This is in the news for all the wrong reasons. There is a contention that Lord Rama did not exist by the center and they were forced to retract before a huge controversy fuelled by them could errupt. This, however, did not stop a controversy from erupting in South India where M Karunanidhi spoke quite loosely about this Mythological Hindu god - in my opinion, this was completely uncalled for.

So, what is this Rama Sethu and why a controversy surrounding it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam’s_Bridge

This is a bridge that is believed to have been constructed by the allies of Lord Rama to rescue Goddess Sita from the clutches of the evil Ravana. It is build by rocks and boulders and there are some media reports of renowed GSI officials (http://kalyan97.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/492/) to suggest this is a construction activity and not something that happened by natural events.

Why this has errupted now is due to the Sethusamudram shallow canal project - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sethusamudram_Shipping_Canal_Project

This project was conceived due to the round about route ships have to take around Sri Lanka and thereby increasing almost 30+ hours of shipping time and about 400 km more distance on the voyage due to the circuituous nature of the same. The project details are given in the link on Wikipedia so I don’t add value by writing on that again!

Is this true? I doubt it.

As per Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyer on his column, Swaminomics, he says studies done show that all these figures are exagerrated and hyped up. He says the internal rate of return of this project would be a measly 2.5% - uneconomic. Furthermore, he says the dredging of the canal for accomodating 20000 DWT (dead weight tonne) would not serve the purpose as the modern ships would be of 75000 DWT to 100000 DWT that could still not pass through this channel - even if it is built.

http://www.epw.org.in/epw/uploads/articles/10823.pdf

(This article was published in the Economic and Political Weekly, VOL 42 No. 29 July 21 - July 27, 2007)

The article speaks of distance from Europe to Kolkata to be much lesser of 8 hours and 250 nautical miles and distance from Africa to Kolkata would actually increase by 3.5 hours with reduction in distance - a measly 70 nautical miles! He further quotes John from the Economic and Political Weekly as saying that the ships would be charged almost $5000 as per the project and they would find going around Sri Lanka cost effective.

Furthermore, he says that the dredging of this canal will face sand inundation constantly and instead of the project harming the environment, it would be the other way round - the objective of the project would be defeated - for reasons related to the low water levels and natural sand inundation characteristic specific to the region.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/S_A_Aiyar_150-year_dream/articleshow/2393766.cms

I have been to Pamban, Rameshwaram and the Bay of Bengal there is quite shallow and beautiful with coral reefs - the water is about 2 feet to 10 feet and is extremely calm - it almost looks like a gigantore swimming pool - clear greenish blue. The same profile exists even around the Rama Sethu which is very close to the Pamban bridge.

Whatever scientific analysis there is to this, my viewpoint is clear:

1. The Rama Setu Sethusamudram project is not going to fly even if it is initiated for economic reasons

2. My take is that Lord Rama did exist, the bridge is not natural and people don’t have a right to comment on other’s faith/belief.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Land hunt in Bangalore gets worse!