It is just as well that the Centre is now seriously considering an alternative route for the Sethusamudram ship channel project. The idea of dredging the sea in shallow coastal waters to allow large seagoing vessels to pass around peninsular India is not new. Various alignments for the proposed channel have been suggested ever since 1860, all aimed at cutting costs by cutting shipping time. However, when the Manmohan Singh government gave signs of starting implementation of the project, it ran into a wall of controversy. The dissonant voices came from environmentalists as well as so-called Hindu-interest lobbyists of the Sangh Parivar. It is ironical to find Hindutva elements pitching themselves into the forefront of protests on the ground that going ahead with Sethusamudram would destroy the "Ram Sethu" (Ram's bridge), which they claim Hindus consider sacred. This is quite extraordinary, given the fact that the entire project had been worked out by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government; and the UPA government was only seeking to implement what its NDA predecessor had set in motion. No Hindutva organisation had then made any dissenting noises, although the government had officially called for public objections, if any. The suggestion of the Supreme Court to look for an alternative dredging route