Quickly build Sethusamudram canal, says CPI-M

New Delhi: Hundreds of youth activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) observed a hunger strike here on Friday to demand the early building of a controversial shipping channel to link India's eastern and western coasts.

The Sethusamudram project will help ships avoid a 785-km detour around Sri Lanka.

CPI-M politburo member Brinda Karat inaugurated the protest organised by the Democratic Youth Federation of India's Tamil Nadu state unit at Jantar Mantar here.

Karat asked the central government to implement the project 'without delay'.

The Rs.242.7 billion ($6 billion) Sethusamudram project plans to provide ships sailing between the east and west coasts of the country with a continuous navigable sea-route through India's territorial waters.

The project is facing opposition on environmental grounds. There is fear that the channel may result in tsunami waves hitting Tamil Nadu and Kerala more fiercely.

The dredging of Ram Sethu, a mythological bridge built by Lord Ram in the Palk Strait, has been opposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.