Drawing closer

Better connectivity between India and Sri Lanka could help them realise the full potential of their partnership

By: Editorial | June 16, 2022 

Multiple transport links existed between India and Sri Lanka until the 1980s when the civil war severely curtailed exchanges and transactions.

Connectivity between Sri Lanka and India seems set to improve, especially between the Tamil areas in the north and Tamil Nadu across the Palk Strait. The projects to link Jaffna by air to Trichy and by boat to Karaikal on the Coromandel Coast are of a piece with India’s development outreach to Sri Lanka that focuses on building long-term infrastructure projects in the island nation, besides aid for emergency needs such as fuel, food and essential medicines.

Multiple transport links existed between India and Sri Lanka until the 1980s when the civil war severely curtailed exchanges and transactions. Before that, a cyclonic storm in 1964 destroyed the Pamban Bridge and the railway terminus and jetty at Dhanushkodi that forced the government to end the popular “Boat Mail”, which connected Chennai and Talaimannar in northern Sri Lankan via Rameswaram through a rail link and a ferry. Since the war ended in 2009, transportation has been a key area that India-Sri Lanka ties have focussed on, with railways and ports in focus — IRCON, an Indian Railways subsidiary, restored the Colombo-Jaffna railway line, which was opened for the public in 2014, and has since expanded to Kankesanthurai beyond Jaffna. However, air connectivity from Indian cities has so far been restricted to Colombo. In effect, this means that a person travelling from Jaffna to Chennai or Trichy/Madurai — a 45-minute journey by air — has to do a six to eight hour rail or road journey to Colombo and then fly out. Direct flights out of Jaffna to cities in Tamil Nadu will save travel time and money, which could give a fillip to tourism, particularly pilgrimage, in the Jaffna peninsula as well as in India. Similarly, the proposed ferry services between Karaikal and Jaffna/Kankesanthurai could at a later stage be upgraded to facilitate transport of cargo from India to Sri Lanka — at present, Colombo is the only port of entry for Indian goods, which involves extra travel. However, a luxury ferry between Tuticorin and Colombo launched in 2011 was halted for lack of patronage.

The current crisis in Sri Lanka has forced Colombo to recalibrate ties with New Delhi and the latter to emphasise its “Neighbourhood First” policy. The challenge, however, would be to insulate bilateral relations from regional politics in both countries and build on the gains for both. Better connectivity and improved travel facilities could help remove the remaining layers of mistrust that has constrained the India-Sri Lanka partnership from realising its full potential.