Sethu route must stay put: Centre

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The report of the expert committee set up by the government under R.K. Pachauri to find an alternative route for the controversial Sethusamudram shipping channel project connecting the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, placed before the Supreme Court Monday, has opposed shifting the current route though it cuts straight into the mythological ‘Ram Sethu’.

The multi-member committee’s report, without making any direct reference to Ram Sethu — the central focus of nearly half-a-dozen petitions in the Supreme Court — simply states that any change in ‘alignment-6’, the approved route for the project, “appears ecologically and economically questionable”.

Since ‘alignment-6’ cuts Ram Sethu, believed to be built by Lord Ram, the top court had asked the government to find whether the channel could be built through ‘alignment-4A’ which was also considered earlier.

“On the basis of the analysis (which included environment, sea life, geological setting and tectonics data) and the importance of the risk management approach, both in ecological as well as economic terms, it appears questionable whether alignment-4A represents an attractive or even an acceptable option,” the report said, adding “given the doubts raised by the detailed analysis which has been carried out, it is unlikely that the public interest would be served by pursuing the project on the basis of alignment-4”.

Solicitor general Rohinton Nariman placed the report before a SC bench of justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad stating that the Cabinet has not yet taken a “view” on it and the government needed at least three months’ time for this. However, the court allowed two months to the government to place before it the decision of the Cabinet.