Dredging on in Adams Bridge, Sethu for Navigation in 2008: Baalu

Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Dec 11 (UNI) Dredging commenced today at the Adams Bridge area, near the Gulf of Mannar Marine Biodiversity Park, for the first undersea shipping channel, the Sethusamudram Project, providing a navigable route connecting the country's east and west coast.

Launching the commencement of work on the 35 km stretch, undertaken by the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), from a Coast-Guard hover craft off the coast this morning, Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport T R Baalu expressed confidence that the channel would be ready for navigation by November 2008, as scheduled.

More dredging vessels would be pressed into service to expedite the pace of the project, he told mediapersons later.

Dredging was being taken up on two stretches in the 167 km-long Sethu Channel and work on the 54 km first off Point Calimere in the Palk Strait was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 2, 2005. In this stretch 8.56 million cu.m had been dredged so far, he added.

The Minister, however, refused to disclose the extent of work completed but maintained that it was progressing at a faster pace.

Answering a question, Mr Baalu admitted that there was a demand for dredging vessels the world over, and said efforts were being made to meet the deadline for the inauguration of the Sethu Channel.

Even within the country, the demand was more with all the ports having called for global tenders. Anticipating this, an order had been placed last year itself for the purchase of a dredging vessel, he said.

Two more dredging vessels would be pressed into service at each of the two stretches, he added.

To a question, he reiterated that the Sethu project would not affect the fragile ecology of the Gulf of Mannar, the home for rare marine species and coral reefs. The channel would run at a distance of 22 nautical miles away from the Gulf.

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