Sri Lanka's cabinet set to discuss road, rail link between India, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's new cabinet will soon discuss a proposal by India to establish a sea bridge and an underwater tunnel to connect India's southern Tamil Nadu to the island nation.

Cabinet Spokesperson and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told Xinhua that the Indian government had discussed the proposal with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during his recent trip to India and the matter would be put for discussion to the cabinet soon.

India has proposed to construct a sea bridge and an underwater tunnel for both road and rail transport that would connect Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu with Sri Lanka through the Palk Strait.

According to media reports, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown interest to carry out the socio-economic feasibility study for this 23 km project linking Dhanushkodi and the Sri Lankan boundary. The project is estimated to cost 5.19 billion U.S. dollars.

Dhanushkodi, situated southeast of Pamban town, is only about 29 kilometers away from Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka, the town closest to the Indian land border.

Currently, the missing link of narrow corridor of about 23 km is serviced through makeshift ferry service.

India's Union Minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, recently said that they are also looking at connecting India and Sri-Lanka following the signing of the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal motor vehicle agreement. Endi