Nitin Gadkari, Sri Lankan PM discuss $5.19 billion India-Lanka road project, underwater tunnel!!

[jaunty]

Bad idea.. They should restart the Totucorin - TalaiMannar ferry service, That's more than adequate as far as connectivity goes.. Any physical connectivity with the main land will bring massive security and social issues to the island

How?

 

[Sky lord]

Bridge will be one helluva drive. Looks like modernity is slowly coming to South Asia.

 

[Gibbs]

How?

Though the bilateral relations are improving under the Modi administration, There is a lot of apprehension regarding the attritional politics by TN polity.. A large number of LTTE sympathizes and other separatists still operate out of South India.. And those with similar ideals still in the more radical Lankan Tamil polity.. Way too early for such open access

ALready the island is suffering from large scale poaching by TN fishermen not only destroying the life blood of Northern Lankan fishermen but devastating the marine life with the use of banned fishing methods.. In addition to the illegal claim by TN of SL sovereign territory of Kachchativu, Most probably this proposed bridge or tunnel would travel along.. That will have issues on territorial integrity

A lot of contraband is smuggled from South India, A huge issue for decades.. This is going to stretch the already over worked border control forces

There are huge issues already with hundreds of illegal Indian migrants working in menial jobs and trade.. Every month dozens are deported, They fly over using the visa on arrival facility, Now with easier access that problem is going to manifold

Indians, Bangladeshis top list of deportees from Lanka | The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

79 Indians detained in Lanka for working illegally | Business Standard News

Illegal foreigners to be deported ::: Dailymirror.lk ::: Breaking News


Simply.. Neither country is ready for this at the moment many other issues need to be ironed out.. There are more negatives as far as Sri Lanka is concerned than benefits.. They had a ferry service that was discontinued during the war.. They should restart it

 

[Arya Desa]

I don't even consider lanka South Asian. When ever I hear lanka I remember that these people supported the demon raavan and they kidnapped Sita. We don't need any ties with them.

 

[Sky lord]

Bridge will be one helluva drive. Looks like modernity is slowly coming to South Asia.

I don't even consider lanka South Asian. When ever I hear lanka I remember that these people supported the demon raavan and they kidnapped Sita. We don't need any ties with them.

jeez man, just let it go! If you go back long enough in history every group should be enemy of every other group. Somewhere along the way, you gotta draw a line and look at future potential not past grevience.

OTOH they should have a raavana temple at the Sri Lankan end of the bridge -and a ram or hanuman temple at the Indian side - tourist draw - ram setu and all. Potential for millions of tourist money.

 

[Indika]

Under water tunnel ?
Seems we are going to take lanka for a grand ride, it will only remain on paper for years. As other ppl suggested hovercraft/ferry service is the best , economical viable and technically feasible.

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

I am not sure. Gulf of Mannar is one of the seven bio diversities in the whole world. It needs to be disturbed a lot.

Secondly, this or that, political parties are going to block that highway for no reason. Economic. If we invest 5 Billion, will it be worth it? Sri Lanka is small with small population, so I have doubts regarding its economic feasability. Instead, small boat, ship ferry service can be introduced.

 

[Echo_419]

Gadkari dreams big, but problem is his dreams run more faster then his ability to catch up with them.
First start a good ferry services first, then talk about undersea routes.

I agree with you he should 1st tale Care of the home front

 

[Arya Desa]

Bridge will be one helluva drive. Looks like modernity is slowly coming to South Asia.

jeez man, just let it go! If you go back long enough in history every group should be enemy of every other group. Somewhere along the way, you gotta draw a line and look at future potential not past grevience.

OTOH they should have a raavana temple at the Sri Lankan end of the bridge -and a ram or hanuman temple at the Indian side - tourist draw - ram setu and all. Potential for millions of tourist money.

They are rakshas worshippers. They slaughtered innocent tamils for decades and you want to build a bridge connecting us with them? Ridiculous.

 

[Tiger Genie]

Sadly you speak the truth,trade is not much BTW the 2 countries & the road will be underutilized

I think it will be VERY HIGHLY UTILIZED for following reasons:

1) South Indians, especially Tamils have cultural and religious connections - there are very holy spots in Sri Lanka that people can simply drive to from South India - Tourist traffic will explode in volume

2) Sri Lanka will have more fluent access to Indian market

3) Tourists coming to India can make Srilanka another stop and the vice versa

All of this is of course not difficult to do now but there is something about driving and trains.

Srilankans may be initially a bit concerned about too much contact with India given impressions developed during the LTTE insurgency and perhaps even worry about Tamil-Tamil contact - just guessing, but that is IMO unnecessary. The Tamils of Tamil Nadu are simply lot of political bark and no bite

 

[MEAGAN FOXSS]

SO SRI LANKA IS SHOWING ITS TRUE FACE . . . . .

 

[ganesh623]

SO SRI LANKA IS SHOWING ITS TRUE FACE . . . . .

What face ?

 

[Kaniska]

Bad idea.. They should restart the Totucorin - TalaiMannar ferry service, That's more than adequate as far as connectivity goes.. Any physical connectivity with the main land will bring massive security and social issues to the island

Anyways all the noise has been coming from the Indian side, Nothing has been discussed or agreed to by the Sri Lankans so far

I agree with you....Already there is a deep level of trust level definciency between people from Tamilnadu and Sri Lankans. So any more physical connectivity is not desired at all. Rather focus on existing infrastructure and strengthen it.

 

[damiendehorn]

With the state of relations between tamil nadu and sri lanka, how is this even likely?

 

[Josef K]

With the state of relations between tamil nadu and sri lanka, how is this even likely?

What relations? TN does not have a separate foreign policy of it's own. Neither does any of it's political parties have any influence over the central govt. as it was in the previous UPA govt. People of TN do not give two hoots about Tamil nationalism. Most of them would love to visit SL for a vacation. And there are many traders from both places who constantly travel for selling and buying stuff. Also there are many Tamils from both places who like to travel for pilgrimages to the various temples in TN and SL. Honestly, the TN-SL animosity is a myth (at least as far as the TN side is concerned, I know it is so), propagated by small fringe parties vying for attention. If Rajapakse had been in power these groups in TN could have exploited that sentiment. However, after the change in leadership, TN Tamils do not care much.