The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP), 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 Sureesh Mehta said in Chennai on Tuesday."It is a viable project. But, on completion, it will be useful only for small ships and not to those navigating on international routes," Mehta told the media on the sidelines of a meeting in Chennai Monday night.When asked to elaborate, the Admiral said, "This is Tamil Nadu. And it is a sensitive issue," and declined to elaborate.He made a speech on "Oceanic Influence on India's Development in the next Decade", at the Fifth T S Narayanaswamy Memorial Lecture in Chennai.SSCP was embroiled in controversy after BJP, AIADMK and other parties objected to the dredging of Ram Sethu, which formed part of the project. The Supreme Court also stayed the dredging work on Ram Sethu.
