“We are telling those who are upset to think of the story of King Solomon. When two mothers came with one baby, the king asked to cut the baby in two. The real mother could not bear it and protested, but the other woman did not say a word of protest. It’s like that,” says S. Murli, member of the BJP national committee in Rameswaram.
Murli says some locals are in favour of the project because it brought them jobs and money. Since all local contracts have been cancelled, small boat owners such as N. Bose say they lost an opportunity to earn three times their salary.
Bose says Dredging Corp. of India Ltd (DCI) rented three boats for dredging inspection work. “They offered Rs1,000 as a daily rent. I make Rs300 now,” he laments.
S. Lakshmanan, deputy general manager of DCI in Rameswaram, says he had no idea if the work would resume or if the contracts would be renewed.
“We have stopped all work pending the Supreme Court verdict. Until the verdict, we will not make any decisions,” he said in an interview before the government decided to seek more time.
The Supreme Court’s verdict was to hinge on the government’s new affidavit, ordered by the court in August, then again in September. The Prime Minister has said he wants to personally look at all submissions to the court.
Already, a report by the committee of eminent persons says there is no evidence to suggest that Adam’s Bridge was man-made, and the project must continue as planned. However, the report also cautions the government about the religious emotions lined up against the project.
This committee of eminent persons was formed to examine the Sethusamudram project and began hearing objections of the people against the project on 31 October 2007.
The panel, headed by Madras University vice-chancellor S. Ramachandran, was criticized for several reasons such as including biased members, being inaccessible to general public and conducting hearings only in Chennai where most locals could not travel.
The chairman of the panel, Ramachandran, was accused of bias because he had given clearance to the project as the chairman of its environmental impact committee. One of the members of the committee, historian R.S. Sharma, was reportedly absent during the hearings for several days. He declined to comment to Mint about his absence.
The project’s financial woes linger. Even before dredging began, costs had escalated to Rs4,000 crore last year and loan terms with lenders lapsed.
According to a banker close to the fund-raising who requested anonymity, project authorities will have to go back to the drawing board and draft a fresh strategy to raise debt for the project. No new attempt has been made by the project authorities to do so.
Srinivas Kannan, general manager of Sethu Samudram Corp., says dredging was going on in two areas—the Palk Strait, where the channel begins, and at Adam’s Bridge.
“We have stopped dredging at the Adam’s Bridge, but we are still working on the Palk Strait.” He says the bills were being paid by equity from the Union government and stakeholders’ contributions from companies such as DCI and Shipping Corp. of India Ltd. “We don’t need loans right now. That is the last stage. We will raise money from the market only when we have to.”