Friday, Sep 10, 2004
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By Our Staff Reporter
THANJAVUR, SEPT. 9. Those who oppose the Sethusamudram project should adduce scientific facts and should not go by "half-baked ideas" and "misconceived notions," N.K. Raghupathy, Chairman, Tuticorin Port Trust, said today. The Tuticorin Port Trust is the nodal agency for the project. "When it was the people's wish from 1956 that the project should be implemented, some organisations of recent origin have been opposing the project. We don't know who fund such organisations. They have been spreading falsehood," Mr. Raghupathy regretted, talking to presspersons here. There would be no dredging in the Gulf of Mannar as claimed by some environmental organisations, he clarified. The navigation route would be 20 km away from the 21 national marine parks.
Environment plan
For the Sethusamudram project a full-fledged environment impact assessment report was prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, before a techno-economic feasibility report was readied. The NEERI said if the proposed route (shown on the map) was taken there would not be any environment problem and that the 21 national marine parks would be safe. The environment management plan prepared by the NEERI would be implemented in letter and in spirit. Tracing the history of the project from 1956, Mr. Raghupathy said every time a committee was formed to review it and give recommendations. All the panels agreed on the technical feasibility but expressed reservations about the economic viability of the project. In the 1980s environment protection became an issue and an environment impact assessment report became necessary for huge projects involving the environment of the sea, the coast and flora and fauna. The NEERI went into the issue of disturbances to mangroves at Muthupettai, wildlife and the bird sanctuary at Vedaranyam and concluded that the project would not affect these environmentally-sensitive areas. For, the flow of water current would not change.
Container transhipment
A public hearing on the project would be held at the Collectorate here at 4 p.m. tomorrow. Public hearings were completed in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts. The sessions would also be held at Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram. Mr. Raghupathy also called for developing at least one of the major ports in the country into an international container transhipment port. Transhipment of containers was now done at the Colombo port. The Tuticorin port had been handling containers and last year it handled 2,54,000 containers. The Mumbai port handled 21 lakh containers last year. The Tuticorin port had links with ports in the United States and Europe, and Red Sea ports.
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