TN’s Stalin Govt to Move Resolution to Revive Sethu Samudram Project

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has decided to move a resolution to revive the Sethu Samudram canal project. He has sought the Centre’s help to take up the project.

The DMK government in Tamil Nadu sees this shipping canal project to create a shipping route between India and Sri Lanka as a mean of economic development of the state. This proposed shipping canal will link Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka.

But Hindus all over India have opposed this project alleging that it will damage the Ram Setu bridge connecting Rameswaram and Mannar island of Sri Lanka, which is mentioned in the Ramayana. Environmentalists are also opposed to this project.

M K Stalin feels revival of the project will enhance the freight handling capacity of Indian ports and lead to economic development.

This shipping canal was started in July 2005 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore. But large-scale protests by environmentalists and Hindu activists against the demolition of the Ram Setu stalled it.

But during the 2021 assembly election campaign the DMK had promised to complete the Sethu Samudram project if it came to power. Stalin had alleged that the BJP government at the Centre was trying to shelve the project for religious politics.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, conducted the feasibility study of the project. The project was sanctioned in 2004 by the UPA government in power. Its start of work was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the presence of former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi.