Announcing the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decision, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said a Special Purpose Vehicle would be set up for the project.
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, aimed at deepening the waters in Palk Straits, is a 'viable' one but will not be useful for the navigation of the big ships, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Suresh Mehta said in Chennai on Tuesday.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has said it will not allow the Centre to go ahead with the Sethusamudram ship canal project as it posed a "challenge" to Indian culture.
The PILs were submitted by Rama Gopalan, President, Hindu Munnani and Subramanian Swamy, Janata party President.
BJP, AIADMK oppose the project while DMK and CPI(M) support the Sethusamudram shipping project across the Palk Strait. T E Narasimhan reports
Shipping Minister T R Baalu cites a Narmada Bachao Andolan vs Union of India case from 2000 to butress his point that the work has to continue.
Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu would monitor the project to ensure that physical and financial targets were met and a separate mechanism was being set up in the Shipping Ministry to monitor the project.
The government on Thursday cleared the long-delayed Sethusumudram Ship Canal Project off Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu that would vastly reduce distance between east and west coasts of India.
An interview with archeologist T Satyamurthy on the Sethusamudram project.
Baalu took copies of the Valmiki Ramayan, Tulasi Ramayan, Adhyathma Ramayan, Kamba Ramayan and many other books, as also copies of maps on Ramar Sethu.
Sri Lanka has raised certain environmental issues concerning the Rs 2427 crore Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Promising to examine the entire issue relating to the Sethusamudram project, the government sought three months' time from the court.
Seeking to exert pressure on the Centre, United Progressice Alliance's key ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday said "any weakened response" by it on the Ram Sethu issue would only "expose the betrayal of hope and promise" given to Tamil Nadu.
The pendant bore the brunt. But for the pendant with a picture of Lord Ram, the stab would have been fatal for the Congress leader, he added.
Baalu also said that the memorandum of understanding with the Suez Canal Company had been initialled by the Chairman of the Tuticorin Port Trust, K Raghupathy.
Shipping ministry officials said a new alignment for the canal would require fresh geological studies like soil testing, wave and sedimentation testing and, most importantly, an environmental impact assessment.
When a resolution, moved by Chief Minister M K Stalin, to urge the Centre to implement the Sethusamudram ship canal project was taken up for discussion in the House members spoke on their party stand.
Union Shipping Minister T R Balu on Saturday said that the Centre will move the Supreme Court to seek permission for carrying out the project in the present route.
'The Indian government should realise that it is more valuable to preserve it than to demolish it for the Sethusamudram canal project for bringing ships inland.'
Senior advocate K K Venugopal's name has been cleared for appointment as the Attorney General for India, following the decision of Mukul Rohatgi to step down as the top law officer.
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