The foam and fraud of SSCP’s nautical falsehood — I

By: V Sundaram
http://newstodaynet.com/col.php?section=20&catid=33&id=1214

Many of the Union Cabinet Ministers and many of the public servants in positions of high authority in the government of India need public insults in the larger public interest. Many of them behave or conduct themselves so abominably that they cry out for public abuse.’

There is no table of weights and measures for ascertaining or determining what constitutes the Due Process. It varies with the subject matter and necessities of the situation. DUE PROCESS OF LAW requires that the proceedings shall be fair, but fairness is a relative, not an absolute concept. It is fairness with reference to particular conditions or particular results.

Whichever way one looks at it, there has been a total violation of the DUE PROCESS by the government in according sanction for the SSCP with breakneck speed in 2005. That is why I am appealing to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India to treat this article as as a Public Interest Litigation and to stay the construction work till all the public issues are fully thrashed out openly in the highest Judicial Tribunal of the land.
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In these columns in May 2007, I had written three articles based on the data and facts collected by a brilliant officer of the Indian Navy Captain Balakrishnan. Based on his acute analysis, and endorsing his view, I had come to the conclusion that that the SSCP project makes no nautical sense in so far as the Indian Coastal Trade (clearly distinct from Foreign Trade involving Foreign Vessels and Foreign Exchange) is concerned.

I said that going through the SSCP Canal no Indian Ship will save either money or time - both of which have been fraudulently claimed as significant benefits arising from the SSCP project.

Now Captain Balakrishnan, with his vast, rich and varied marine experience in the Indian Navy and later in the Merchant Navy, has mathematically proved in a rigourously scientific manner that even in the area of Foreign Trade (so very vital for the Indian economy if not for T.R. Baalu’s private and political SSCP!) SSCP makes no nautical sense - either from point of view of savings in Cost or saving in Time.

I have shown the Nautical Calculations done by Balakrishnan to some of the most distinguished Officers of the Indian Navy and Indian Merchant Navy and all of them have endorsed the Technical/Marine facts and figures based on which he has given his finding in regard to the implications of SSCP for India’s Foreign Trade.

I would like to pay my tribute to Balakrishnan in the words that Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) used in the case of Admiral Lord Fisher: Ruthless, Relentless and Remorseless.

I am presenting below the TIME AND DISTANCE CALCULATIONS FOR FOREIGN TRADE done by Captain Balakrishnan in his own words:

TIME AND DISTANCE CALCULATIONS- NAVIGATING AROUND SRI LANKA AND THROUGH SSCP - PASSAGES FROM MUSCAT AND ADEN TO CHITTAGONG/ SINGAPORE

1. The Detailed Project Report (DPR), of the SSCP, states all vessels up to 20,000 DWT, about 75 % of 30,000 DWT, 10% of 40,000 DWT vessels and 5% of 50,000 DWT vessels will be able to use the canal. Also, all empty vessels (in ballast) can pass through the canal.

2. The DPR, highlighting other USPs of the SSCP, anticipates that from the very first year of its operation, 60% of its revenue will accrue from vessels plying on foreign trade routes.

3. In an earlier series of analysis of the SSCP, published in the media, the nautical viability of the SSCP, from the Indian coastal trade standpoint had been analysed. This paper analyses the same issue from the foreign sea trade point of view. Two voyages have been chosen, where a ship has the option of either circumnavigating Sri Lanka or navigating through the SSCP.



(The foregoing distances above have been derived from actual plotting on navigational charts.)
18. Additional Time For Passage Planning For purposes of embarkation/disembarkation of ‘Pilot’, manoeuvering of engines in the SSCP, as also for any delays in embarkation of ‘Pilot’- ADD = 2 hours (at the minimum) to all the passage times indicated above.

DEDUCTIONS

19. From the foregoing calculations, the following deductions can be arrived at:

A. The difference in time taken to reach Chittagong from Muscat, circumnavigating Sri Lanka and navigating through the SSCP at speeds of 12 and 6 knots is = 8.9h

B. The difference in time taken to reach Chittagong from Muscat, circumnavigating Sri Lanka and navigating through the SSCP at speeds of 12 and 8 knots is = 12.4h

C. The difference in time taken to reach Chittagong from Muscat, circumnavigating Sri Lanka and navigating through the SSCP at speeds of 15 and 6 knots is = 3.9h

D. The difference in time taken to reach Chittagong from Muscat, circumnavigating Sri Lanka and navigating through the SSCP at speeds of 15 and 8 knots is = 7.4h

E. The difference in time taken to reach Singapore from Aden circumnavigating Sri Lanka and navigating through the SSCP at speeds of 12 and 6 knots is = 14.2h (NOTE: THIS IS ON ACCOUNT OF THE FACT THAT THE VOYAGE DISTANCE INCREASES BY 63nm BY TRANSITING THROUGH THE SSCP!!

F. The difference in time taken to reach Singapore from Aden circumnavigating Sri Lanka and navigating through the SSCP at speeds of 15 and 8 knots is = 11.1h

G. Comment: The deductions in voyage time between Aden and Singapore implies that SHIPPING TRAFFIC ORIGINATING FROM EUROPEAN/MEDITERRANEAN/RED SEA PORTS AND BOUND FOR THE FAR-EAST WILL BYPASS THE SSCP AND CIRCUMNAVIGATE SRI LANKA. THE SAME HOLDS TRUE FOR TRAFFIC ORIGINATING FROM PORTS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA/EAST AFRICA. A SIZEABLE SLICE OF GLOBAL SHIPPING TRAFFIC!!

H. While there is a nominal savings in distance navigating through the SSCP,this does not automatically translate into commensurate savings in time, on account of the ‘slow speeds’ required to navigate through the SSCP. This is on account of a phenomenon termed ‘SHALLOW WATER EFFECT’, or, ‘SQUAT EFFECT’, where the ship’s propellers tend to seek the sea bottom while proceeding at High Speeds in shallow waters.

The SSCP is to have a dredged depth of 12 meters and can be used by ships having a draught of upto 10.7 meters. Thus the difference between the ship’s keel and the sea bottom will be 12.0-10.7=1.3 metres. This explains the necessity for ‘slow speeds’ through the SSCP.

I. It is mandatory for ships using the SSCP to embark a ‘pilot’. In the calculations above, at a conservative estimate, a time 2 hours has been added to passage time calculations. Under actual conditions, this time may be more than the 2 hours.

All the major ports of India suffer from a shortage of ‘pilots’. Therefore, the SSCP is also likely to suffer from this prevailing malaise. It is therefore appreciated that vessels arriving at the ‘pilot boarding grounds’ at the SSCP may have to anchor and await ‘pilot boarding’. In this light, it would further tend to reduce the difference in time between circumnavigating Sri Lanka and using the SSCP.

CONCLUSION

20. The foregoing calculations and the analysis based on them, from first principles, clearly highlight the NON-VIABILITY OF THE SSCP, for foreign trade vessels.


(To be continued)