[Assam] [WaterWatch] Fwd: Sethusamudram Project economically not feasible

Thu Sep 27 09:07:14 CDT 2007

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, sgvombatkere at hotmail.com 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>sgvombatkere at hotmail.com
>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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