India May Set Up Company in 1 Month for Dredging Canal in East (Bloomberg.com)

India plans to setup a company - Sethusamudram Corp. - to dredge the channel between India and Sri Lanka and make it deeper so that ships don't have to sail around Sri Lanka to reach Indian ports on the east coast. The channel is expected to cut the sailing time by 36 hours.

India plans to collaborate with the Suez Canal Authority as well as the governement of Panama for the project.

Environmentalists fear that the project would have an adverse impact on fish catch of the 250-odd fishing villages and irrevocably damage the marine biodiversity.