The total length of the SSCP in the Palk Bay is 152.2 km. It is divided into three legs.

The southern leg in the Adam’s Bridge area is 20 km.The northern leg in the Palk Strait area is 54.2 km. The central portion is 78 km.

Dredging is to be carried out in the southern and northern legs to maintain a depth of 12 metres.This would facilitate a navigable channel for ships with a draught of upto 10.7 meters. 

 The India Meteorological Department has assigned the Palk Bay area as a ‘high risk area’ for cyclonic activity. These cyclones can have a devastating consequence on the SSCP and shipping in the area. In December 1964, a cyclone washed away the Pamban Bridge. In December 1973, five metres high tidal waves hit the Palk Bay area – the very same area where the SSCP is to be dredged!

There are a number of other disadvantages as well:
* Palk Bay is one of the five areas, off the Indian coast, where high siltation takes place regularly. Dredging may have to be undertaken through the year to maintain dredged depths, leading to substantial increase in costs. 

* The SSCP is not an ‘open seaway’. Thus for ships to safely traverse through the canal, it will be mandatory to embark a ‘pilot’. Delays in the boarding of the pilot, like during adverse weather conditions, will lead to anchoring of the vessel. It could mean higher costs and delays. 

* Indications are that vessels upto 32,000 DWT can navigate through the canal. However, in the current global shipping scenario, to reduce the operating costs and cater to the enormous growth in shipping needs, trends are towards operating vessels of 60,000 DWT and above. This means that none of the large vessels can avail of the facility of the SSCP. 

* In the opinion of K S Ramakrishnan, former deputy chairman of Chennai Port Trust and former MD of the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation, the pilotage costs of navigating through the SSCP and certain allied factors, could make it unattractive to the shipping industry. He feels that the actual use of the SSCP may be substantially lower than the  projected figure of 3417 vessels by 2010 and 7141 vessels by 2025.

* The SSCP’s assumption that ships will save time and fuel cost by using the canal instead of going round Sri Lanka is also flawed for a number of reasons. This is on account of a phenomenon termed ‘Shallow Water Effect’ or ‘Squat Effect’, where a ship runs the risk of running aground if it proceeds in shallow waters at speeds done in the open sea. Thus, ships navigating through the SSCP have to perforce reduce their speed by nearly 50% or more of that done in the open sea.

* It is quite possible that Indian flag flying ships maybe ‘coerced’ into using the SSCP to justify its existence. However, no such compulsions exist in respect of foreign flag ships. To conclude, the project does not make any “nautical sense.”

(The writer has served in the Indian Navy and also as a Master Mariner in the Merchant Navy)