By VINODHINI New Delhi,July 30: The Centre has formed a second expert committee on the Sethu-samudram project, asking it to examine an alternative alignment to avoid damage to "Ram Sethu". It will be headed by Dr R.K. Pachauri, Nobel Prize-winning head of the UN climate change committee and director-general of the New Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Senior government counsel Fali S. Nariman told the Supreme Court Wednesday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had directed the Pachauri committee to study an alternative alignment between Dha-nushkodi and Lands End on Rameswaram island, keeping in view technical aspects, cost-benefit analysis, the social, cultural and environmental impact and law and order. TERI sources said, however, that the project lacked transparency. No timeframe has been set, but a PMO letter said it had been asked to submit a feasibility report "as soon as possible." The court had earlier suggested that the government look for an alternative route. Besides Dr Pachauri, who is not in India now, its other members are Dr T. Chakrabarti, acting director, National Environment Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur; S.R. Shetye, director, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa; Dr S. Kathiroli, director, National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai; Rear Admiral B.R. Rao, the government's chief hydrographer; and P.M. Tajale, director-general, Geological Survey of India, Kolkata.