The Hindu Business Line : Centre keen on speeding up Sethusamudram project

THE Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr T.R. Baalu, is prepared to look at different methods of financing the Sethusamudram project so that funds constraint does not stand in the way of the project being executed.

He is keen to speed up the project and has asked the Tuticorin port authorities to submit an application for environment clearance by June 15. He would closely monitor it as he had asked that a copy of the application be marked to him, he told a press conference here today.

The project involves excavating and deepening a canal near Rameswaram island to connect Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar to facilitate movement of ships.

This is expected to substantially reduce the transit time for ships reaching ports on the east coast and also provide a more convenient route for ships connecting ports on the east and west coast of the country.

Mr Baalu said the Sethusamudram project, hanging fire for a long time, would save about 350 nautical miles.

The draught would be about 7 m. As it was expected to cost about Rs 800 crore and finding that money might be a problem, he was keen to go ahead with the project in phases. He said the project could be taken up on a build-operate-transfer basis or a special purpose vehicle could be floated with ports on the east coast of India taking up to 51 per cent equity (as they would benefit from the project) and the balance with private parties.

On the proposed Tuticorin-Colombo ferry, the Minister said he had held a meeting with officials concerned, including those from the Tamil Nadu Government, last week. He had asked the State Government officials to get back to him within a month. The Government might be reluctant for various reasons and those concerns would be addressed.

He said some stretches of roads in Tamil Nadu had been declared as national highways and the formalities would be completed once the Government handed over land for these projects to the Centre.

The stretches are: Coimbatore-Mettupalayam-Udhagamandalam (declared as NH 67 extension), Dindigul-Theni via Periakulam (NH 45 extension), Thanjavur-Kumbakonam-Vridhachalam-Ulundurpet (NH 45C) and Radhapuram-Nagercoil (NH 45B). Likewise, the Centre was also prepared to declare as national highway the 100 km Tuticorin-Kanyakumari stretch of the East Coast Road, provided the State requested for this.

The State Government was in the process of improving the Nagapattinam-Tuticorin stretch with World Bank aid. The Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh governments had requested that the Chennai-Tirupati road be improved.

Mr Baalu said detailed project reports would be prepared for constructing a multi-level flyover at the Kathipara junction on the GST Road - a major bottleneck on the road linking the airport to Chennai - and a flyover on GST Road opposite the airport.

Both these projects were in his South Chennai Parliamentary constituency.

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