Government has claimed in Supreme Court that it is impossible to  construct an alternate alignment for building Sethusamudram channel in the Palk Strait to facilitate navigation between India and Sri Lanka in order to save the mythical Rama Setu.
An apex court bench of Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice C.K. Prasad was told this in a report submitted by the committee headed by environmental expert Rajender Pachauri.
Pachauri gave his report after the apex court asked him to look into the possibility of an alternate alignment for Sethusamudram channel bypassing and saving the mythical Rama Sethu.
The report said that the alternate alignment “could potentially result in ecological threat that could pose a risk to the ecosystem in the surrounding areas and in particular to the biosphere reserve”.
Both in ecological as well as economic terms, it appeared questionable whether the alternate alignment represented an attractive or even an acceptable option, the report said.
The court granted the government eight weeks to respond to the report after Solicitor General Rohington Nariman told the court that the government was yet to take a view on the report and needed some time.
The need for the Sethusamudram channel was felt because ships travelling between the west and east coasts of India go around Sri Lanka because a sea channel between the two countries was blocked by the Adam’s Bridge.
The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) made a proposal for sea channel that would have cut through the Adam’s Bridge.
The report said: “It should also be emphasised that prudent adaptation strategy to deal with projected impacts of climate change should ensure that infrastructure investments are made in a way that will not pose any risk to life or property.”
“Given the doubts raised by the detailed analysis, which has been carried out, it is unlikely that the public interest would be served by pursuing the project on the basis” of the alternate alignment, the report said.
From Wikipedia
Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project proposes linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping channel through the shallow sea sometimes called Setu Samudram, and through the chain of islands variously known as Ramar Palam,  ram sethu and Adam’s Bridge.
This would provide a continuous navigable sea route in and around the Indian Peninsula. The project involves digging a 44.9 nautical mile (83 km) long deepwater channel linking the shallow water of the Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar.  Government of India plans to break limestone shells & shores to the infinity called Ram’s Bridge or Ram sethu as part of implementation of this project.
A few organizations are opposing damage to Ramasethu on religious,environmental and economical grounds. Many of these parties or organizations support implementation of this project using one of the 5 alternative alignments considered earlier without damaging a structure considered sacred by Hindus.
Current alignment is planned as Mid-ocean channel which is unprecedented. Other famous shipping canal projects like Suez Canal and Panama Canal projects are land based channels.