ON THE JOB: Dredging under way near Adam's Bridge off the Rameswaram coast. — Photo: K. Ganesan

ADAM'S BRIDGE: Union Minister for Shipping T.R. Baalu on Monday inaugurated dredging work connected to the Sethusamudram project in the Adam's Bridge area, near the International Maritime Boundary Line off the Rameswaram coast, at a simple ceremony held on board a Coast Guard hovercraft.

As Mr. Baalu, flanked by State Minister Thangavelan, Bhavani Rajendran MP and Tuticorin Port Trust Chairman N. Raghupathy, fired in the air thrice to mark the launching of dredging work. Cutter suction dredger (CSD) Aquarius, stationed at a few hundred metres from the hovercraft, began dredging amid cheers from the Ministers, officials, dredging engineers and Coast Guard personnel.

The CSD Aquarius, derequisitioned from a foreign charter, can dredge approximately 30,000 cubic metres a day.

The Sethusamudram project envisages creation of an offshore navigation channel of nearly 167 km. It will have two legs of 54-km dredged channel in the Palk Strait off Point Calimere in the north and 35 km of dredged channel in the Adam's Bridge area.

"The Dredging Corporation of India will complete the project before 2008. Though there is a high demand for dredgers in several countries, the Ministry of Shipping and other leading port trusts in the country have taken a vow to complete the dream project within the stipulated time," said Mr. Baalu. Concerted efforts would be taken to hire dredgers from Holland, Belgium, Taiwan, Korea and other nations. "The country is badly in need of several dredgers in order to increase the capacity of all 12 leading ports and compete with other countries. Considering this, the Ministry of Shipping has already placed an order with an indigenous company to manufacture a modern dredger at a cost of Rs.250 crore," he said. Mr. Baalu said the ecology of the Gulf of Mannar would not be disturbed. No dredging would be done there except in a small portion at Adam's Bridge.

Enough precautions had been taken to monitor the environmental impact during the dredging at Adam's Bridge.

Leading environmental institutes would study the air, noise and surface aspects at the dredging and dumping sites.

He said there was no connection between the recent death of whales and the dredging. According to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, just six whales had died, as against the death of 39 dolphins and a whale in 1982 and 46 dolphins in 1999.

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