NEW DELHI, 1 February 2008 — With several petitions pending before the Supreme Court objecting to the proposed demolition of Ram Setu to complete the Sethusamudram project, speculation is rife that it may be abandoned.

The Supreme Court yesterday gave the government four weeks to make its stand clear on the issue of Ram Setu. The government was ordered to file two separate affidavits by the first week of March. One will be on the alignment of the project and the other will ascertain whether Ram Setu is an ancient monument.

The bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal gave its ruling when Additional Solicitor General R. Mohan pressed for more time to file affidavits on the issue.

The Supreme Court meanwhile directed authorities not to damage the Setu in any manner while carrying out dredging.

The Sethusamudram project was planned to save navigation time for ships sailing between India’s east and west coasts. Currently ships have to sail around Sri Lanka. Under the project, the narrow Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka will be made navigable for big ships by dredging the channel, saving shipping companies time and precious fuel. But devout Hindus argue that the dredging will demolish the Ram Setu that was built by King Ram in ancient times with the help of his army of monkeys on way to defeating King Ravana. Geologists say it’s a land bridge that submerged with the gulf between the Indian landmass and the island of Sri Lanka widening through the ages owing to shift in tectonic plates.

Earlier, the federal government had filed an affidavit questioning the very existence of characters and events described in the Hindu holy book Ramayana. The government had to later withdraw the affidavits in the face of a public outcry.

Even as the case is in court, opposition to the project has come from a new quarter: people concerned with the country’s defense. The project could be a security threat to the country, according to Vice Admiral R.F. Contractor, the director general of the Coast Guard. “The Sethusamudram project could pose a security threat to the country. There are chances of militants using this channel,” he said yesterday.

“Security issues are bound to arise. It’s sea, its waters are shared, the maritime area is common by virtue of the close boundary lines between Sri Lanka and India. So obviously the implications are more there,” Contractor said. “We have conveyed these implications to the government. Complications are there and I am sure these will be addressed,” he added.

Although the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party approved the project “in principle” in 2003, when it was in power, there has been progress in the project only over the last two years with backing from Shipping and Surface Transport Minister T.R. Baalu.

Of late, environmentalists have also voiced opposition to the project. In their opinion, the project will destroy the fragile ecosystem of the area.

“If this project becomes a reality, it will result in a 30-billion-rupee annual loss to the national exchequer and this amount will go up every year. This much is clear because the canal will have a depth of only 12 meters and it will be impossible for ships weighing more than 30,000 tons to cross it, meaning over 95 percent of the ships in the world cannot use it at all,” Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy said.

With nearly 95 percent of ocean-going vessels having a displacement weight exceeding 60,000 tons, only a few would benefit from the project, Swamy added.