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NEW DELHI: The special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the Sethusamudram project off Tamil Nadu, which will allow ships to call on India’s east coast without going around Sri Lanka, was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week but not before two of its ministers, both from the DMK, engaged each other in a little duel.

Environment Minister A Raja was told by his senior DMK colleague and Shipping Minister T R Baalu not to overstate environmental concerns over the prestigious project.

While Baalu laughed off differences with Raja as "nonexistent", it is learnt that the latter raised objections to the Sethusamudram draft note, circulated before the project was taken to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for approval this month.

Raja’s ministry listed environmental concerns over the project, saying that the coordinates of the Sethusamudram canal should be defined to ensure it does not run through the Mannar National Park.

The Indian Rs 1,500-crore project envisages creation of a canal off Rameswaram by dredging the shallow banks in Adams Bridge and parts of Palk bay. The alignment of the canal is close to the India-Sri Lanka international boundary that keeps a 6-8 km distance from Van Tivu Island near Tuticorin and some 20 km from Shingle Island in Adams bridge.

Once completed, this canal will save ships calling on India’s east coast 36 hours of ship time by doing away with the need to sail around Sri Lanka which is an additional 400 nautical miles.

It’s learnt that Baalu’s Shipping ministry was peeved with the Environment Ministry for raising objections. In fact, such was the pressure from Baalu’s end that Environment Ministry even contemplated withdrawing the objections since the Cabinet note was for the creation of an SPV that would raise funds for the DMK-backed project.

But the Finance Ministry insisted on inputs from the Environment Ministry. So the latter’s concerns were merely appended as annexure to the Cabinet note on the SPV.

Speaking to this website’s newspaper from Chennai, T R Baalu said: "The project is not near Mannar Park. Not even a blade of grass grows where the project is being proposed and there is no vegetation." He said an environment issue simply did not arise.

"When the project was first conceived, it was proposed in the Gulf of Mannar. Then it was moved further away. Now the canal alignment is 20 km away," Baalu said. He said the SPV had been cleared by the Cabinet but denied that Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin was heading the project.

When Raja’s comments were sought - he too was in Chennai - he told this website’s newspaper that all he had suggested was to let the SPV be cleared by the Environment Impact Assessment Committee.

"I have no objection to the project. But they should have all environmental clearances," he said.

Asked why did he raise objections in separate annexure to the Cabinet note,

Raja said: "I do not remember what exactly was written on the papers. You will have to wait until I return to Delhi."

The Nagpur-based NEERI, which completed the environmental impact report on the project this July, cited concerns over the canal’s impact on flora and fauna in the Mannar National Park. With Baalu and the DMK making the project a prestige issue, environmental issues are, for the present, on a backburner. (NewIndianExpress)

(http://www.island.lk/2004/09/15/news17.html)