Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project
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| Government of India | |
| Industry | Canal Project |
| Founded | February 1997 |
| Headquarters | Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
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Area served
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Tamil Nadu, India |
| Website | sethusamudram |
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (Tamil: சேதுக்கால்வாய் திட்டம், Cētukkālwāi Tiṭṭam ?) is a proposed project to create a shipping route in the shallow straits between India and Sri Lanka. This would provide a continuously navigable sea route around the Indian Peninsula. The channel would be dredged in the Sethusamudram sea between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, passing through the limestone shoals of Adam's Bridge (also known as Rama's Bridge, Ram Sethu and Ramar Palam (Tamil: இராமர் பாலம் Rāmar pālam)).
The project involves digging a 44.9 nautical miles (51.7 mi; 83.2 km) long deepwater channel linking the shallow Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar. Conceived in 1860 by Alfred Dundas Taylor, it recently received approval of the Indian government.
The proposed route through the shoals of Adam's Bridge is opposed by some groups on religious, environmental and economical grounds. Five alternative routes were considered that avoid damage to the shoals. The most recent plan is to dig the channel roughly in the middle of the straits to provide the shortest course and the course requiring least maintenance. This plan avoids the demoltion of Ram Setu.
Because of its shallow waters, Sethusamudram—the sea separating Sri Lanka from India—presents a hindrance to navigation through the Palk Strait. Though trade across the India-Sri Lanka divide has been active since at least the first millennium BCE, it has been limited to small boats and dinghies. Larger oceangoing vessels coming from the West have had to navigate around Sri Lanka to reach India' eastern coast. Eminent British geographer Major James Rennell surveyed the region in late 18th century; he suggested that a "navigable passage could be maintained by dredging the of Ramisseram [sic]". Little notice was given to his proposal, perhaps because it came from "so young and an unknown officer", and the idea was only revived 60 years later. Efforts were made in 1838 to dredge the canal, but the passage did not remain navigable for any vessels except those with a shallow draft.
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