The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Sethu channel will not affect coastline: study

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 09, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Sethu channel will not affect coastline: study

S. Annamalai

Findings were shown to Sri Lankan officials during New Delhi talks "The project will be safe to implement and it will not have any negative impact on the stability of the coastlines in Sri Lanka and India."

MADURAI: A post-tsunami study, undertaken by the Chennai-based Indomer Coastal Hydraulics and Alkyon Hydraulic Consultancy and Research, The Netherlands, has revealed that the Sethusamudram channel project "will not have any negative impact on the stability of the coastlines in India and Sri Lanka."

The study, commissioned by the Tuticorin Port Trust, nodal agency for the project, in the wake of environmental concerns raised by Sri Lanka, has categorically stated that the "Sethusamudram ship channel project will be safe to implement."

"Studies on the impact and stability on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka due to Sethusamudram ship channel project (Hydro Dynamic Modelling and Ship Manoeuvring Studies for SSCP)," has concluded thus: "Tide/wind induced flow during various seasons, the wave propagation, (and) the sediment transport pattern remain similar with the same magnitude and direction after opening the channel for the region falling 500 metres away from the channel... Such findings imply that the dredging of the channel will not have any impact on adjacent coastlines on the Sri Lankan coast and further on any of the offshore islands or on the sand spits present across the Adam's Bridge. Hence the project will be safe to implement and it will not have any negative impact on the stability of the coastlines in Sri Lanka and India."

Officials of the Department of Ports told The Hindu the findings of various studies undertaken in connection with the project were shown to Sri Lankan officials during talks held in New Delhi recently. The Central Government, they said, expressed the desire to exchange information and data on the project's impact on environment. But no scientific data was available with their Sri Lankan counterparts, they said.

However, if the Sri Lankan Government came up with any scientific support for its apprehensions on the channel, technical modifications, if warranted, would be made in the project, the officials said.

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