I like to think there are many in this and affiliated forums who are
proponents of this boondoggle too, like there are for that other
boondoggle, ILR, who are quite knowledgeable in their fields of
expertise.
Gen. V puts forth a very well thought out set of parameters to weigh
the wisdom of the proposal. Perhaps it is time for the proponents of
the scheme too speak up, defend their position, if not debunk or
refute what Gen. V puts forth.
That would be true citizen participation in their national well-being.
cm
At 10:59 AM +0530 9/27/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dr. S. G. Vombatkere
M.E (Struct), PhD (I.I.T), F.I.E (India), C.Eng
475, 7th Main Road
Major General (Retd), Corps of Engineers
Vijayanagar
1st Stage
E-mail : <mailto:sgvombatkere%40hotmail.com>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
MYSORE - 570 017
Tele : 0821-2515187
26 September 2007
LETTER TO WATERWATCH
(By E-mail)
Sir,
The issue at hand in the current Ram Sethu controversy is whether
the strip of submerged land connecting India with Sri Lanka is natural
or created by human intervention, and not whether Lord Rama is a real
or mythological character. The scientific data seems to show that the
strip of land is natural. However anybody who denies the existence of
Lord Rama in the minds of the people is certainly misguided and
perhaps also ill-motivated.
It is piquant that those who now oppose the Sethusamudram
Project on religious grounds have gained media attention and those who
have from the outset been opposing it on grounds of human
displacement, ecological reasons and even on economic viability
grounds have been side-lined and forgotten. The displacement of
thousands of fisher folk and their loss of livelihood and the
undoubted environmental damage that will occur due to dredging the
channel to create a canal do not need elaboration, except to say that
if these costs are taken into consideration, the project may actually
prove economically unviable.
This is the kind of development that is providing benefits to
some at the cost of the many. In this project, the benefit will go
only to contractors, some politicians and bureaucrats, because it is
economically not feasible. If it were economically feasible, it might
benefit a larger section of India's population, by reducing the
transit time between the east and west coasts to increase trade and
movement of goods and save fuel, but even so that section would
benefit at the cost of the lives and livelihoods of those thousands of
displaced families.
The project is unlikely to be economically feasible because
(1) The canal will permit only shallow draft vessels of under 36,000
tons displacement, which constitute only 30% of the vessels that ply
between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, while 70% of traffic of
large vessels will still have to sail around SriLanka,
(2) Even these shallow draft vessels will have to be towed (because of
turbulence that their propellers will create that will cause the canal
to fill up quicker with sand) ... and that takes time and costs money
(both of which have to be weighed against the time and cost of sailing
around SriLanka),
(3) The width of the canal will not permit vessels being towed to
also cross each other ... this "one-way" system will again mean more
time and more money,
(4) The charges for the towing and other handling charges have not
been considered versus time and fuel for sailing around SriLanka. That
is, will a vessel opt to use the canal if there are time and cost
disadvantages, and
(5) The costs of dredging and maintenance of the canal and the tug
boats etc., will reflect upon the user charges to the ships that use
the canal.
If the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of the Project is calculated,
the Project would be dropped as economically unfeasible. There has
been no economic feasibility study carried out, which has been
discussed in the public domain. All this is quite apart from the fact
that thousands of fisherfolk families will pass from poverty to
destitution and the ecology of the region will be irreversibly
damaged. As the present model of development with such projects
displaces people and drives them to destitution and desperation, we
are only creating more discontented people, people with a grudge,
militant people ... ... and terrorists.
The traffic management and operation of the canal needs to be
carefully studied before the claimed time-saving advantage of the
project can be established. There is no evidence that a comprehensive
economic feasibility study considering these factors, the cost of
maintenance dredging and the user charges to the cargo shipping lines
has been done.
Yours sincerely,
(Dr.S.G.Vombatkere)
__._,_.___
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