By T.S.V. Hari, IANS
Chennai : Following the Supreme Court’s interim stay of the dredging work near Rameswaram for the Sethusamudram canal project, three ships involved in the work have been shifted out of the area, official sources said.
The ships doing dredging at the Rameswaram area, nearly 500 km south of here, stopped work at 4 p.m. Monday after removing 35 million cubic feet of sand and silt in the Palk Straits for the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP).
The ships have moved 270 km north to Nagappattinam Tuesday.
Further, two supply ships that transported workers and material to the dredging site have also been ordered to move northwards.
The SSCP has, however, not indicated the reason for stopping the work.
An official speaking on telephone from Tuticorin on condition of anonymity revealed that the ships have been asked to shift their base as a precautionary measure.
“The political climate in southern Tamil Nadu is not conducive for the ships’ continuing presence in the region. We also do not want to be mistaken for flouting orders of the Supreme Court. But we are hopeful that higher officials in the union ministry (of Shipping and Surface Transport) will get the stay vacated. So the ships are only being moved to an area which is not too far away from Rameswaram,” the official told IANS.
According to figures available from the SSCP, another 47 million cubic metres of sand and silt have to be removed from the site.
SSCP officials are tight-lipped about the extent to which the Ram Sethu has been affected so far.
Union Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu has gone on record Monday saying that he was hopeful about resumption of dredging soon after vacation of the interim stay by the apex court.
The court had stayed the dredging on Aug 31 on the plea of Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy who alleged that the government was planning to damage Ram Sethu (Adam’s Bridge), a chain of limestone shoals between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Mannar in Sri Lanka, with the dredging. The Ram Sethu is revered by many Hindus as the bridge built by mythological god Ram to rescue his wife Sita from demon king Ravana of Lanka.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has been aggressively demanding total stoppage of work in the area where it claims the Ram Sethu is situated.
Hundreds of BJP and Hindu Front workers have courted arrest protesting against the destruction of the disputed structure.
Environmentalists have also stressed on the need to stop work citing possible destruction of underwater flora and fauna.
The Gulf of Mannar, which will be affected if the SSCP proceeds according to plan, is home to thousands of rare corals, which may be destroyed forever.
The Rs.24 billion-SSCP was inaugurated in 2005 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Madurai.