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by Professor Willie Mendis
Senior Professor of Town & Country Planning University of Moratuwa

The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project was inaugurated on 2 July 2005 by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India. It’s conceptual origins may have a recorded history of 150 years for other reasons, in a vastly different geopolitical environment encompassing the Palk Strait. On the other hand, the common focus throughout this period was to use the shallow waterway between India and Sri Lanka. The condition of the latter had however remained pristine in that time, except during the monsoonal water surges from one end to the other, and also when in use for legitimate navigation between the two countries by small boats and ferries. This situation changed when it became the conduit for smuggling, and for poaching by fishermen, which caused concerns to rise to a high point in the bi-lateral political agenda. It’s consequence resulted in an agreement on a maritime boundary between the two countries. A fundamental aim of same was to facilitate surveillance by each country to enable the prosecution of the offenders.

In the larger domain of this waterway, known as the Palk Strait, named after a British Governor of Madras, Robert Palk, a plethora of other issues took center stage in the last three to four decades. It did not however mean that the idea of the canal had receded into the backwoods. Thus, a UN-ESCAP created Asian Highway project (which later expanded to include a Trans-Asian Railway, both of which were integrated into the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Develo-pment Project), envisaged a ferry link across the waterway. Another issue which had a bearing on it, comprised the armed conflict which has been raging in northern Sri Lanka, fronting the waterway. A third issue consisted of the directives arising from the UN Commission on the Law of the Sea for determining the outer margin of the continental shelf for the delineation of the Exclusive Economic Zone. The latter could have an impact on oil and gas prospecting in the Bay of Bengal, and also on a request by India for returning Kachchativu Island on a ‘perpetual lease’ to them. These issues have therefore heightened the importance of the waterway in a manner very different to its past.

In addition to the aforesaid, the changes in the global maritime scenario were also impacting the importance of the waterway. For example, the influence on the development of International Container Terminals in some Ports of the Southern States of India and in its network with domestic shipping, have included the Tuticorin Port which envisages its future development by the deepening of the Palk Strait. Furthermore, the rising role of India as a global economic superpower has required its attention on the overall security of the Indian Ocean, along which travels a large share of shipping, especially the oil tankers, which are essential to sustain India’s economic growth. These are suggestive of the relevance for India’s naval traffic to be able to go around India using a deepened channel in the Palk Strait, without having to circumnavigate Sri Lanka. The latter would have also taken into account the security of the strategic nuclear power plants on India’s east coast in close proximity to the shoreline of the Palk Strait.

It was against the above backdrop that the previous Jayalalitha-led Government disfavoured an earlier proposal by Sri Lanka to construct a Land Bridge across the Palk Strait. The latter situation became more pronounced when the United Progressive Government took office in 2004. It comprised an Alliance of several political groupings which included the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), led by Muthuvel Karunanidhi. The Common Minimum Programme of this Alliance explicitly referred to the Sethu Canal Project, which it declared “will be completed expeditiously.” Accordingly, the Union Shipping Minister (from the DMK), fast tracked the advance of the Project to its current status where dredging is now talking place in the Palk Strait. The Sethu Canal Project was one which the DMK had declared as the Tamil Nadu State’s showcase-in-making during the run up to its Assembly polls. Consequently, it had been one of much debate in that State regarding the claims and counterclaims for its credit. The latter between Ms. Jayalalitha Jeyaraman and Mr. Muthuvel Karunanidhi were reported in an Article published in ‘The Hindu’ and reproduced in ‘The Island’ Newspaper of 2 July 2005. In same, the newly-elected Chief Minister was quoted as follows:

“Jayalalitha attempts to establish that the Sethusamudram Project has materialised following the demands made by MGR and herself. Is this true?

“Forty-five years ago in the year 1960 itself, Anna spoke regarding the Sethusamudram Project. Resolutions were passed demanding implementation of the Sethusamudram Project in the DMK conferences held in Tirupparankundram in 1961 and it Virugambakkam in 1966.

“After coming to power in the year 1967, Anna declared ‘Awakening Day’ and insisted on the implementation of the Sethusamudram Project and Tuticorin Harbour Project and continued to insist on the same during the subsequent assembly session.

“When I was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in the year 1972, I presided over the function in which the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi declared open the statue of V. O. Chidambaram at the entrance of Tuticorin Harbour. In that function also, I spoke about the importance of the Sethusamudram Project in the usage and development of the Tuticorin Harbour.

“But concealing all these facts in her lengthy statement, Jayalalitha blows her own trumpet, as if she alone was instrumental in bringing about this scheme.

“If as she says, the steps to press for the implementation of the project were taken in the year 1998, who was the party in power then. Was it not the DMK? Was I not the Chief Minister? When this is the case how can Jayalalitha claim that she was instrumental in ensuring the project becoming a reality, be true?”

The result of the Tamil Nadu State Assembly polls which were held recently is now history. The DMK-led five party alliance which won 163 seats in the 234-member State Legislative Assembly now has Muthuvel Karunanidhi as its Chief Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Congress Party is a partner in this alliance. The DMK too is a partner in the Congress-led 24 party United Progressive Alliance in power at the center, headed by Dr. Singh.

In the aforesaid backdrop, the ground reality would most likely be that the state would be in harmony with New Delhi on many issues, especially on foreign policy impacting projects such as the Sethu Canal Project. This augurs well for Sri Lanka to launch a new era of bi-lateral relations across the Palk Strait. The new Government in office in Tamil Nadu State which has great relations with New Delhi and vice-versa, offers an opportunity to forge fresh partnerships. The latter cannot be overlooked in favour of the dictates of orthodox theory of foreign relations. Further-more, the largeness of India, coupled with the significant share of its four southern states, contrasts patently with its island neighbour located a mere 30 kilometers away. The shallow waterway which separates them never appeared as impacting the ‘excellent bi-lateral relations’. On the other hand, it is now engulfed with a multitude of issues which have all the attributes beyond the domain of conventional diplomacy. It has often become a platform for firefighting exercises, or for short-term trouble shooting.

The ‘wake-up call’ to focus the spotlight on the Palk Strait came with the beginnings of the conflict in northern Sri Lanka. Its spatial implications had no lessons of similarity elsewhere in the world. It’s subsequent experience was hardly cultivated to ‘fine-tune’ a working relationship between the respective land borders fronting the Palk Strait. It even took time for Sri Lanka to foresee the emergent potentials and constraints of a ‘Sri Lanka – South India subregional economy’. The Sethu Canal Project amplified this wide chasm. It has generated a demand for a dedicated focus on the waterway separating the two countries. This implies that Sri Lanka should get back to the drawing board at the Diplomatic Training Institute, and co-create a new chapter on the classical doctrine of bi-lateral relations. It should consider that in the long and arduous road of nation building, it is never too late to build partnerships beyond traditional political borders. The latter seems timely with the return of Muthuvel Karunanidhi as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State.

In these circumstances, the recently reported reiteration of Sri Lanka’s expression to India of the importance of “effectively addressing the environmental concerns generated by the Sethu Canal Project,” acquires a new dimension. The Lankan submission at the 3rd Meeting of Technical Experts was that the two countries must “jointly ensure that the construction, maintenance and operation of the canal occur in a manner that it is not detrimental to the sensitive environment of the area, its flora and fauna.” The latter may now have to be viewed in the time – frame envisaged by the Center and the TN State for the completion of the project. Its implications may need closer study with the emergent situation of northern Sri Lanka’s conflict and the advances being made on the ‘co-ordinated patrolling’ which the Indian and Sri Lanka Navies have taken up along the International Maritime Boundary Line and also on the ‘sorting out of issues’ arising from the existing Free Trade Agreement which is being scoped to a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to ‘unleash the inherent synergies between the two countries’.

The above suggests that it may be timely for Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry to establish a multi-disciplinary team, tasked with the responsibility of regularly working from our mission office in Chennai to meet with its identified counterparts in TN State. The already experienced frequencies of the meetings of the Technical Experts Group may not suffice for the three stakeholders (New Delhi, Colombo and Chennai), to arrive at desired outcomes. It is important for Sri Lanka to acknowledge that the Sethu Canal Project is now on an ‘implementation mode’. It’s expeditious completion may now get catalysed for the previously mentioned reasons morefully attributed to the DMK in the run-up to the TN Assembly polls. Consequently, if other opti-ons are not on Sri Lanka’s radar screen, there will now arise the urgency to prepare Sri Lanka’s road map for the Post-Sethu era. It’s already expressed active interest in the development of the Palk Bay area could then be integrated therein. The opportunity could also be taken to work out the modalities committed by the two countries in the Inter–Gover-nmental Agreement entered into in China for establishing its respective links in the Asian Highway. It’s spatial implications are what will reveal the ground realities of the synergies between Sri Lanka and the four Southern Indian States. The formal protocols of the bi-lateral Free Trade Agreement/CEPA will have different connotations to the spatial configuration of the envisaged synergies. The cornerstone of the latter will be the networking of the economically strategic human settlements and transportation corridors. Its manifestation in a Transnational Spatial Strategy could derive benefits from borders beyond South India to the rest of India, other South Asian countries, the BIMSTEC region, the IOR-ARC countries, and the Asian Highway-linked countries.

The timely emergence of the politically inter-dependant harmony between Chennai and New Delhi offers Sri Lanka the gateway to align its bi-lateral relations to include the Palk Strait dimension. In same, a feasible partnership between Colombo and the new administration of Tamil Nadu State, becomes fundamental for managing the post-Sethu era. [Source: Island]