Experts to review route to save Ram Setu bridge

New Delhi: The central government has decided to appoint an expert committee to examine the feasibility of having an alternative alignment for a shorter navigational sea route around India's southern tip, sparing the mythological Ram Setu bridge.

The government on Tuesday decided to have the viability of building Sethusamudram Shipping Channel via an alternative route examined following the Supreme Court's repeated suggestion to explore the possibility of avoiding damage to the Ram Setu, said to have been built by Lord Ram, senior government counsel Fali S. Nariman told the apex court here yesterday, during a hearing on the issue.

The eight-member expert committee, constituted to examine the viability of an alternative route for the shipping channel, is to be headed by Rajendra K. Pachauri, director general of the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

According to a July 29 order by the cabinet secretariat, signed by its director Rajeev Ranjan, the expert committee includes Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute acting Director T. Chakarbarti and Goa's National Institute of Oceanography Director S.R. Shetye as its members.

"The committee will quickly examine the feasibility of the alternative alignment suggested by the Supreme Court ... in view the technical aspects, cost benefit analysis, social and cultural impact, environmental impact, law and order aspect and any other related matters," said Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekar in his order.