Taking note of a Supreme Court observation that “if faith could be accommodated, all other issues would be sorted out” in the row over the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project, the Centre today informed the court that a committee of experts had been set up to examine the feasibility of an alternative alignment for the canal.

With today’s development, the court concluded hearing on a batch of petitions opposing the project on various grounds, including religious and environmental. The verdict which has been reserved will, however, have to wait for the report of the committee of experts, the court said.

By suggesting it was not averse to the idea of abandoning the current Alignment No. 6 — this requires cutting through the Ram Sethu — in favour of Alignment No. 4 or any other alternative, if found economically, environmentally and technically viable, the Centre effectively managed to buy time for a decision on the project.

Alignment No. 4, with a little deviation from Dhanushkodi, cuts through the portion between Dhanushkodi and Land’s End on Rameshwaram Island, thereby leaving the Ram Sethu untouched — a point made on July 23 by the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan. Asking the Centre to consider an alternative alignment, the court had observed “if faith could be accommodated, all other issues would be sorted out.”

Today, after having sought instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, Fali S Nariman, senior counsel for the Centre, gave the bench a copy of a letter informing “in pursuance of the observations made by the SC relating to the SSSCP, the Central government constitutes a Committee of Experts.”

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