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A leading Sri Lankan development expert has urged India and Sri Lanka to opt for "transnational spatial planning" so that they may avoid needless and mutually destructive competition, and develop in tandem.

"What we need is an India-Sri Lanka Development Corridor to link the infrastructure, resources and development plans of Sri Lanka and those of the four South Indian states for mutual benefit," says Professor Willie Mendis, of the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka.

Mendis, an engineer who had also served as a diplomat, told Hindustan Times that India and Sri Lanka should see the Palk Strait, the 30 kms stretch of water that divides the two countries, as a link between the two countries which could be exploited for mutual benefit.

In this context, he regretted that India had decided to dig a canal in the Palk Strait to facilitate Indian coastal shipping without consulting Sri Lanka and assuaging its fears about the impact of the project on the environment of the north Sri Lankan coast, and the business of the Colombo port.

However, Mendis did not say that the Sethusamudram project should be given up. He felt that Sri Lanka could have been integrated into it from the stage of conception, so that both India and Sri Lanka could benefit it, and India itself could maximise the benefits.

He suggested that the Tuticorin port in South Tamil Nadu, which stood to benefit from the proposed canal, could have a joint business plan with Colombo port to exploit the emerging business opportunities in the region to the maximum in the most rational way.

Noting that Tuticorin port had already tied up with the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), Mendis suggested that Colombo port join the duo to jointly exploit business opportunities for the benefit of all the three.

The money spent on modernising and upgrading Tuticorin port and on building the Sethusamudram canal would not be worthwhile if the port and the canal did not earn money, Mendis, who is also an expert on port management, pointed out.

As per current plans, the Sethusamudram canal is to have a draft of just 12.5 metres. With this, the canal would be navigable only for naval ships and small cargo vessels, and not the big Panamax era vessels, the engineer said.

Thus, the project is not an immediate threat to Colombo port, which will still be receiving the mother ships, and will be handling a large part of the transshipment to ports in the Indian subcontinent.

But Colombo would have to think of future development possibilities, Mendis warned.

The promoters of the modernization of the Tuticorin port and the Sethusamudram canal project, will both have other problems to think about, after the political posturings cease, and the media hype dies down. They would have to think of the projects`ED sustainability and profitability, he pointed out.

To recover the cost and make the ventures self sustaining and profitable, the canal and the port would have to get better and bigger domestic and international business, the Sri Lankan engineer pointed out.

"To earn money, the port and the canal must be hooked to the existing and emerging business opportunities in the region and beyond. They must be linked with the shipping industry. This is essential because the world`EDs ports are controlled by just five major shipping companies," he said.

"The Tuticorin port and the Colombo port can do this jointly (with Singapore port as the third party, of course) better than singly," he argued.

But bringing about any changes in the thinking on the Sethusamudram project was difficult at this juncture, because high voltage politics and media hype had submerged the real, hard issues, he said.

"In the public posturing and debate now, 60 per cent`86is politics, 30 per cent media hype, and only 20 per cent`86is reality," Mendis said.

He hoped that over time, the real issues relating to economics and international business would come to the fore, and a rational consideration would be possible.

Prof. Mendis drew comfort from the fact that no budgetary allocation had yet been made for the Sethusamudram project by the central Indian government. Perhaps there was some room still for a reconsideration or a recasting of the project, he felt.

Land bridge

The Sri Lankan expert is clearly an ardent advocate of the idea of building a land bridge between India and Sri Lanka spanning the Palk Strait. To him it is the best way of linking the two countries for mutual benefit.

"It will also mitigate the vulnerability of the port of Colombo arising from the Sethusamudram project," he pointed out.

"India and Sri Lanka are separated by a mere 30 kms of waterway. This is an ideal scenario for promoting development on both the sides by the process of transnational spatial planning in the sub-region formed by Sri Lanka and the four states of South India, namely, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala," he said.

The former Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, had floated the idea of building a land bridge spanning the Palk Strait between Thalaimannar in North West Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram in South East India.

Though the project has been stalled by security considerations in Tamil Nadu, the Vajpayee government in New Delhi had agreed to do a feasibility study.

Mendis proposed that the land bridge should be linked to India`EDs Golden Quadrilateral Highway Network, which has now been designated as being part of the Asian Highway linking 23 countries.

As per current thinking, the Asian Highway in Sri Lanka is to be linked with India through a ferry service between Colombo and Tuticorin. This, according to Mendis, is not at all satisfactory. He feels that Sri Lankan cities should be linked with the urban centres of South India and beyond through a land bridge across the Palk Strait.

"The launching of the Indian Highway Network linking the North and the South, and the East and the West; the success of the high-tech parks in Bangalore and Hyderabad; the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between India and Sri Lanka; and the opening up of the skies to the airlines of the two countries, have all opened up new vistas for an India-Sri Lanka urban link up through transnational spatial planning," he said.

The urban catchment area across Sri Lanka and India would be having 77 million people by the end of the decade, more than three times Sri Lanka`EDs current population. The cities in this Indo-Lanka corridor could develop into "global cities" with vast reservoirs of skills essential for a knowledge-based new economy, Mendis said.

On the Sri Lankan side of the trans-border link, the key city regions would be the Colombo metropolitan region in the West, the Trincomalee region in the East, Jaffna in the North and Hambantota in the South. These would have to be connected with first rate road and railways, Mendis said.

"Transnational spatial planning with a land bridge linking Sri Lanka with India, will help Sri Lankans get rid of the island mentality and become respected nationals on the world stage," he said.

"India and Sri Lanka have a common past going back to more than 2,500 years. I believe that they should be able to build a common future based on the common past," the Professor said.

Smart partnership concept

As suggested by former Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Singapore should be drafted into the trans-border spatial planning process as a partner, Mendis said.

"Singapore is a city state with a proven ability in successful urban-led development. It is an acknowledged global city with a developed IT, construction, port development, commercial aviation and financial services sector. It is also a gateway to South East Asia."

"Singapore is already in collaboration in many of these fields in India. This establishes its case for the being involved in the Smart Partnership project between India and Sri Lanka," Mendis said.

He noted that during Wickremesinghe`EDs visit to Singapore in 2002, the Singapore Prime Minister had supported the India-Lanka trans-border bridge project.

Mendis regretted that when thinking of the benefits of a project and doing the planning of a project, the vision tended to be narrow with only one dimension in view.

In the case of the Sethusamudram canal project, the vision could be just facilitation of Indian coastal shipping, and in the case of the land bridge project, it could be earnings from the toll. But it would be to everyone`EDs good if the planners looked into various other aspects related to a project, so that the benefits were enlarged and maximised, and the ill effects were minimised.

(Hindustan Times)