Ram Setu Bridge

Ram Setu Bridge

Subject: History

Context: The teaser of Akshay Kumar’s new movie, Ram Setu, was released , once again generating buzz around the chain of shoals off the southeast coast of India that many believe is the bridge to Lanka mentioned in the Ramayana.

Concept:

Ram Sethu:

• Ram Sethu is also known as Adam’s Bridge or Nala Sethu.
• It is a 48 km chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island known as Rameswaram Island on the coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island on the coast of Sri Lanka.
• The bridge separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast).
• The bridge holds religious significance. A bridge is mentioned in Ramayana, that Lord Ram and his army built to reach Lanka.
• The location of the Lanka of the Ramayana has been widely interpreted as being current day Sri Lanka and bridge as Ram Sethu.

SethusamudramProhject

• The project was conceived in 1860 by Alfred Dundas Taylor
• In 2005, the Government of India approved Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project
• It is a proposed project to create a shipping route in the shallow straits between India and Sri Lanka across the Palk Bay cutting across Rama Setu.
• The project involves digging a 44.9-nautical-mile long deep-water channel linking the shallow Palk Strait with the Gulf of Mannar.
• The channel would be dredged in the Sethusamudram sea passing through the limestone shoals of Ram Sethu.