Just in: The Centre tells the Supreme Court that alternative alignment for the Sethusamudram project is not economically or ecologically feasible.

The Supreme Court in March dusted out the controversy over a shipping channel through Sethusamudram having mythological significance by asking the Centre to specify within two days its stand on grant of national monument status to it.

A bunch of petitions, including by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, had questioned the Sethusamudram shipping channel alignment on the ground that it was breaching the mythological bridge, mentioned in epic Ramayana.

While Swamy had sought declaration of the present day remnants resembling the mythological bridge as a national monuments other petitioners had sought realignment of the project to save Sethusamudram from dredging for the channel to open a short shipping route via the Palk Strait.